Tate Allan, Trofholz Amanda, Miner Michael, Berge Jerica
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States.
Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota Medical School, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
JMIR Pediatr Parent. 2021 Mar 24;4(1):e22541. doi: 10.2196/22541.
Prior research around the home meal environment has demonstrated that family meals are associated with positive health outcomes for children and adolescents. Researchers have begun using direct observational methods to understand key aspects of family meals such as meal healthfulness and family meal frequency to explain the protective nature of family meals. Direct observational research, however, can be resource intensive and also burdensome for participants. Information about the number of days needed to sufficiently characterize typical meal healthfulness using direct observational research methods is needed.
The current study aimed to produce guidance about the number of meals necessary to approximate typical meal healthfulness at the family dinner meal occasion in a direct observational, mixed methods study of the home food environment.
Families were recruited between 2012-2013 from primary care clinics in the Minneapolis-St Paul metropolitan area (N=120). A total of 800 meals were collected as part of the Family Meals LIVE! mixed methods study. The Healthfulness of Meal Index was used to evaluate meal dietary healthfulness of foods served at 8 family meal occasions. Participating families were provided an iPad (Apple Inc) and asked to video-record 8 consecutive days of family dinner meals with a minimum of two weekend meals. After the meal, families completed a meal screener, which is a self-reported, open-ended measure of the foods served at the meal.
Weekend and weekday meals differed in their measurement of meal healthfulness, indicating that at least one weekday and one weekend day are necessary to approximate meal healthfulness. Single-day measurement mischaracterized the strength of the relationship between the quality of what was served and intake by almost 50%, and 3 to 4 observation days were sufficient to characterize typical weekly meal healthfulness (r=0.94; P<.001).
Relatively few direct observational days of family meals data appear to be needed to approximate the healthfulness of meals across 1 week. Specifically, 1 weekday and 1 weekend observation are needed, including a total of 3 to 4 days of direct observational meal data. These findings may inform future direct observational study designs to reduce both research costs and participant burden in assessing features of the meal environment.
先前围绕家庭用餐环境的研究表明，家庭聚餐对儿童和青少年的健康有积极影响。研究人员已开始使用直接观察法来了解家庭聚餐的关键方面，如膳食健康程度和家庭聚餐频率，以解释家庭聚餐的保护作用。然而，直接观察研究可能资源消耗大，且对参与者来说也很繁琐。我们需要了解使用直接观察研究方法充分描述典型膳食健康程度所需的天数信息。
在一项关于家庭饮食环境的直接观察性混合方法研究中，本研究旨在得出关于家庭晚餐时近似典型膳食健康程度所需用餐次数的指导意见。
2012年至2013年期间，从明尼阿波利斯-圣保罗都会区的初级保健诊所招募家庭（N = 120）。作为“家庭聚餐直播！”混合方法研究的一部分，共收集了800次用餐数据。用餐健康指数用于评估在8次家庭聚餐场合所提供食物的膳食健康程度。为参与家庭提供了一台iPad（苹果公司），并要求他们连续8天对家庭晚餐进行视频记录，其中至少有两顿是周末晚餐。用餐后，家庭完成一份用餐筛选表，这是一份对用餐时所提供食物的自我报告式开放式评估。
周末和工作日的用餐在膳食健康程度的衡量上存在差异，这表明至少需要一个工作日和一个周末来近似膳食健康程度。单日测量会使所提供食物质量与摄入量之间关系的强度被错误描述近50%，3至4个观察日足以描述典型的每周膳食健康程度（r = 0.94；P <.001）。
似乎只需要相对较少的直接观察家庭用餐天数数据，就能近似一周内膳食的健康程度。具体而言，需要1个工作日和1个周末的观察数据，包括总共3至4天的直接观察用餐数据。这些发现可能为未来的直接观察研究设计提供参考，以降低评估用餐环境特征时的研究成本和参与者负担。
