Department of Psychology and Sports Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, AL10 9AB, UK.
Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, AL10 9AB, UK.
Appetite. 2020 Jul 1;150:104643. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2020.104643. Epub 2020 Feb 24.
Heightened sensitivity to sensory information has been associated with food fussiness in both atypical and typical development. Despite food fussiness and sensory dysfunction being reported as common concerns for children with neurodevelopmental disorders, the relationship that exists between them, and whether they differ between disorders, has yet to be established. The current study aimed to examine sensory sensitivity as a predictor of food fussiness in three different neurodevelopmental disorders, whilst controlling for comorbidity amongst these disorders. Ninety-eight caregivers of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; n = 17), Tourette Syndrome (TS; n = 27), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD; n = 27), and typical development (TD; n = 27) were compared using parental reports of child food fussiness, food preferences and sensory sensitivity. Children with neurodevelopmental disorders were reported to have significantly higher levels of both food fussiness and sensory sensitivity, with children with ASD and TS also showing significantly less preference for fruit than children with TD. Importantly, higher levels of taste/smell sensitivity predicted food fussiness for all four groups of children. In addition, taste/smell sensitivity fully mediated the differences in food fussiness between each group of neurodevelopmental disorders compared to the TD group. The findings highlight that food fussiness is similar across these neurodevelopmental disorders despite accounting for comorbidity, and that greater sensitivity to taste/smell may explain why children with neurodevelopmental disorders are more likely to be fussy eaters.
对感觉信息的敏感性增加与非典型和典型发育中的食物挑剔有关。尽管神经发育障碍儿童的食物挑剔和感觉功能障碍被报告为常见问题，但它们之间的关系以及它们在不同障碍之间是否存在差异尚未确定。本研究旨在检查感觉敏感性是否可预测三种不同神经发育障碍儿童的食物挑剔，同时控制这些障碍之间的共病。使用父母对儿童食物挑剔、食物偏好和感觉敏感性的报告，对注意力缺陷多动障碍（ADHD；n=17）、妥瑞氏症（TS；n=27）、自闭症谱系障碍（ASD；n=27）和典型发育（TD；n=27）的 98 名儿童的照顾者进行了比较。神经发育障碍儿童的食物挑剔和感觉敏感性水平显著较高，与 TD 儿童相比，ASD 和 TS 儿童对水果的偏好也明显较低。重要的是，较高的味觉/嗅觉敏感性预测了所有四组儿童的食物挑剔。此外，味觉/嗅觉敏感性完全解释了与 TD 组相比，每组神经发育障碍儿童之间食物挑剔的差异。研究结果表明，尽管存在共病，但这些神经发育障碍之间的食物挑剔是相似的，对味觉/嗅觉的敏感性增加可能解释了为什么神经发育障碍儿童更容易挑食。
