Study results
New method for assessing diet quality in Finnish elementary school-aged children
Assessing the quality of diet has been considered more important than measuring the intake of separate nutrients when determining the possible health-promoting effects of a diet and its potential to reduce disease risk. Measuring the dietary intake is challenging as traditional methods, such as food diary, are burdensome and expensive to use. We have developed indices for assessing diet quality in Finnish adults (Leppälä et al. 2010) and preschool-aged children (Röytiö et al. 2015), and here, we developed a tool for diet quality assessment in elementary school-aged children.
Our study was conducted in Turku and Kuopio areas in Finland with 266 elementary school-aged children and their parents, and subsequently a valid and easy-to-use tool for measuring diet quality in elementary school-aged children was developed (Koivuniemi et al. 2021b). Child’s diet was measured in detail with a five day food diary and a food frequency questionnaire.
By using scientific methods, we identified 15 questions from the food frequency questionnaire that were the best to depict the diet quality in children. The questions were scored and formulated into an index which can be used as it is and no supporting methods, such as food diary, is needed for the scoring. Based on the index scoring, the diet quality of children can be divided into two categories: poor and good diet quality.
In this study population, half of the children had a good diet quality. Children with a good diet quality had lower intakes of sucrose and total fat, better fat quality of the diet (lower intakes of saturated fatty acids and dietary cholesterol) as well as higher intakes of protein, dietary fibre, and several vitamins and minerals, compared with children with a poor diet quality. Further, younger children (1st and 2nd graders) had more likely good diet quality than older children (5th and 6th graders).
The short method developed in this study is a valid tool for the assessment of diet quality in elementary school-aged children. It can be used for example in nutrition research and in school health care in identifying those children that have a poor diet quality and thus, are in most in need of nutrition counselling.