Hammersley Megan L, Buchanan Limin, Xu Huilan, Wen Li Ming
School of Health and Society, Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
Early Start, Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
Health Educ Behav. 2022 Jun 6:10901981221096100. doi: 10.1177/10901981221096100.
Dietary intake can affect the physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development of young children. Few studies have explored the relationships between dietary intake and the cognitive and socioemotional dimensions of school readiness. This study aimed to investigate the longitudinal associations between children's dietary intake in early childhood, and cognitive and socioemotional school readiness indicators at age 4-5 years using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. A total of 4,253 children were included in the analysis. Multiple linear regression models were built to investigate whether dietary intake (measured by questionnaire at parent interview) at age 2-3 years predicted school readiness indicators of socioemotional and behavioral functioning (measured by parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire [SDQ total score and pro-social scale]), verbal (assessed by Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Third Edition [PPVT-III]) and nonverbal (assessed by "Who Am I" test [WAI] cognitive skills) at age 4-5 years. Furthermore, using cross-sectional data at age 4-5 years, four multiple linear regression models were built to investigate if dietary intake was correlated with the aforementioned school readiness indicators. All models were adjusted for potential confounders. It was found that every one-point increase in child dietary intake score at age 2-3 years led to a decrease in SDQ total score by 0.19 (95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.10, 0.28], and an increase in SDQ pro-social scale, WAI score and PPVT score by 0.07 (95% CI = [0.03, 0.10]), 0.27 (95% CI = [0.13, 0.41]), and 0.20 (95% CI = [0.09, 0.30]), respectively, at age 4-5 years. Children's dietary intake was also a correlate of their school readiness at age 4-5 years. These results add to the limited evidence base suggesting that children's early dietary intake may play an important role in later socioemotional and behavioral development, and the development of cognitive skills, which are critical school readiness indicators.
饮食摄入会影响幼儿的身体、认知和社会情感发展。很少有研究探讨饮食摄入与入学准备的认知和社会情感维度之间的关系。本研究旨在利用澳大利亚儿童纵向研究的数据，调查幼儿期儿童的饮食摄入与4至5岁时认知和社会情感入学准备指标之间的纵向关联。共有4253名儿童纳入分析。建立了多个线性回归模型，以调查2至3岁时的饮食摄入量（通过家长访谈时的问卷测量）是否能预测4至5岁时社会情感和行为功能的入学准备指标（通过家长报告的长处与困难问卷[SDQ总分和亲社会量表]测量）、语言能力（通过皮博迪图片词汇测验第三版[PPVT-III]评估）和非语言能力（通过“我是谁”测试[WAI]认知技能评估）。此外，利用4至5岁时的横断面数据，建立了四个多元线性回归模型，以调查饮食摄入量是否与上述入学准备指标相关。所有模型均对潜在混杂因素进行了调整。结果发现，2至3岁儿童饮食摄入得分每增加1分，4至5岁时SDQ总分就会降低0.19（95%置信区间[CI]=[0.10,0.28]），SDQ亲社会量表、WAI得分和PPVT得分分别增加0.07（95%CI=[0.03,0.10]）、0.27（95%CI=[0.13,0.41]）和0.20（95%CI=[0.09,0.30]）。儿童的饮食摄入也是其4至5岁时入学准备的一个相关因素。这些结果进一步补充了有限的证据，表明儿童早期的饮食摄入可能在后期的社会情感和行为发展以及认知技能发展中发挥重要作用，而这些都是关键的入学准备指标。
