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ARS Home » Plains Area » Houston, Texas » Children's Nutrition Research Center » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #311291
Title: Adolescents who perceive their diet as healthy consume more fruits, vegetables and milk and fewer sweet drinks

Author
item DAVENPORT, LEIGH - Debakey Va Medical Center
item RADCLIFFE, JOHN - Texas Woman'S University
item CULLEN, KAREN - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC)

Submitted to: International Journal of Child Health and Nutrition
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/18/2014
Publication Date: 9/16/2014
Citation: Davenport, L.A., Radcliffe, J., Cullen, K.W. 2014. Adolescents who perceive their diet as healthy consume more fruits, vegetables and milk and fewer sweet drinks. International Journal of Child Health and Nutrition. 3(3):124-129.

Interpretive Summary: Adolescents do not eat enough fruit and vegetables, and drink less milk and more sugar sweetened beverages than recommended. This study examined whether adolescents' perception about how healthy their diets were compared to their friends was related to what they ate and drank over the past week. Adolescents completed an online questionnaire about their diet over the past week and answered a question about how they perceived the healthfulness of their own diet compared to their friends' diets. Those adolescents who believed their own diets were healthier than their friends reported eating significantly more fruit and vegetables, more milk, and less sugar-sweetened beverages over the past week than those who did not. Future studies should explore how adolescents rate their diets and how these perceptions influence dietary choices in order to design education programs.

Technical Abstract: This study assessed whether adolescents' perception of the healthfulness of their diet was related to dietary behaviors over the past week, controlling for demographic characteristics. Participants (n=391) completed an online survey on the frequency of specific dietary behaviors over the past week and the perceived healthfulness of their own diet compared to their peers' diets. Mean intakes of juice, fruit, vegetables, milk, sugar-sweetened beverages, and diet beverages were compared by perceived healthfulness of diet categories using analysis of covariance. Participants with higher perceived healthfulness of diet reported significantly higher mean fruit and vegetable intakes and a lower mean intake of sugar-sweetened beverages over the past week than participants with the same or lower perceived healthfulness of diet (all p<0.001). Participants who reported a higher perceived healthfulness of diet reported a significantly higher frequency of milk intake (p<0.05) than those who reported the same perceived healthfulness of diet. Those with lower perceived healthfulness of diet reported higher mean frequencies of diet beverage intakes than those with higher perceived healthfulness (p<0.05). Further research should include qualitative studies with adolescents to explore how individuals rate their diets and how these perceptions influence dietary choices.