Mediation of parental educational level on fruit and vegetable intake among schoolchildren in ten European countries.

• Published in: Public Health Nutrition
• Main Authors: Lehto, Elviira, Ray, Carola, Te Velde, Saskia, Petrova, Stefka, Duleva, Vesselka, Krawinkel, Michael, Behrendt, Isabel, Papadaki, Angeliki, Kristjansdottir, Asa, Thorsdottir, Inga, Yngve, Agneta, Lien, Nanna, Lynch, Christel, Ehrenblad, Bettina, Vaz de Almeida, Maria Daniel, Ribic, Cirila Hlastan, Simčic, Irena, Roos, Eva
• Other Authors: Folkhälsan Research Center, Paasikivenkatu 4, 00250 Helsinki, Finland. EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. National Center of Public Health and Analyses, Sofia, Bulgaria. Institute of Nutrition Sciences, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany. Department of Social Medicine, Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Clinic, University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece. Unit for Nutrition Research, Landspitali-University Hospital and Faculty of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland. School of Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Meal Sciences, Örebro University, Campus Grythyttan, Sweden. Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. Department for Biosciences and Nutrition at Novum, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences of Porto University, Porto, Portugal. National Institute of Public Health, Chronic Diseases Prevention Centre, Ljubljana, Slovenia. National Education Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press 2015
• Subjects: Ávextir; Grænmeti; Mataræði; Börn; Foreldrafræðsla; Parents/education; Vegetables*; Fruit*; Food Habits; Child; Endeavour; Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2336/338668; https://doi.org/10.1017/S136898001300339X

To access publisher's full text version of this article click on the hyperlink at the bottom of the page To examine which factors act as mediators between parental educational level and children's fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake in ten European countries. Cross-sectional data were collected in ten European countries participating in the PRO GREENS project (2009). Schoolchildren completed a validated FFQ about their daily F&V intake and filled in a questionnaire about availability of F&V at home, parental facilitation of F&V intake, knowledge of recommendations about F&V intake, self-efficacy to eat F&V and liking for F&V. Parental educational level was determined from a questionnaire given to parents. The associations were examined with multilevel mediation analyses. Schools in Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden. Eleven-year-old children (n 8159, response rate 72%) and their parents. In five of the ten countries, children with higher educated parents were more likely to report eating fruits daily. This association was mainly mediated by knowledge but self-efficacy, liking, availability and facilitation also acted as mediators in some countries. Parents' education was positively associated with their children's daily vegetable intake in seven countries, with knowledge and availability being the strongest mediators and self-efficacy and liking acting as mediators to some degree. Parental educational level correlated positively with children's daily F&V intake in most countries and the pattern of mediation varied among the participating countries. Future intervention studies that endeavour to decrease the educational-level differences in F&V intake should take into account country-specific features in the relevant determinants of F&V intake. European Commission’s Programme of Community Action in the Field of Public Health 2003–2008.