RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of food parenting practices (FPP), including home availability of different types of foods and drinks, parental modelling of fruit intake, permissiveness and the use of food as a reward in the relationship between parental education and dietary intake in European children. DESIGN: Single mediation analyses were conducted to explore whether FPP explain associations between parents' educational level and children's dietary intake measured by a parent-reported FFQ. SETTING: Six European countries. PARTICIPANTS: Parent-child dyads (n 6705, 50·7 % girls, 88·8 % mothers) from the Feel4Diabetes-study. RESULTS: Children aged 8·15 ± 0·96 years were included. Parental education was associated with children's higher intake of water, fruits and vegetables and lower intake of sugar-rich foods and savoury snacks. All FPP explained the associations between parental education and dietary intake to a greater or lesser extent. Specifically, home availability of soft drinks explained 59·3 % of the association between parental education and sugar-rich food intake. Home availability of fruits and vegetables was the strongest mediators in the association between parental education and fruit and vegetable consumption (77·3 % and 51·5 %, respectively). Regarding savoury snacks, home availability of salty snacks and soft drinks was the strongest mediators (27·6 % and 20·8 %, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: FPP mediate the associations between parental education and children's dietary intake. This study highlights the importance of addressing FPP in future interventions targeting low-educated populations.
RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To describe the design of the Feel4Diabetes-intervention and the baseline characteristics of the study sample. DESIGN: School- and community-based intervention with cluster-randomized design, aiming to promote healthy lifestyle and tackle obesity and obesity-related metabolic risk factors for the prevention of type 2 diabetes among families from vulnerable population groups. The intervention was implemented in 2016-2018 and included: (i) the 'all-families' component, provided to all children and their families via a school- and community-based intervention; and (ii) an additional component, the 'high-risk families' component, provided to high-risk families for diabetes as identified with a discrete manner by the FINDRISC questionnaire, which comprised seven counselling sessions (2016-2017) and a text-messaging intervention (2017-2018) delivered by trained health professionals in out-of-school settings. Although the intervention was adjusted to local needs and contextual circumstances, standardized protocols and procedures were used across all countries for the process, impact, outcome and cost-effectiveness evaluation of the intervention. SETTING: Primary schools and municipalities in six European countries. SUBJECTS: Families (primary-school children, their parents and grandparents) were recruited from the overall population in low/middle-income countries (Bulgaria, Hungary), from low socio-economic areas in high-income countries (Belgium, Finland) and from countries under austerity measures (Greece, Spain). RESULTS: The Feel4Diabetes-intervention reached 30 309 families from 236 primary schools. In total, 20 442 families were screened and 12 193 'all families' and 2230 'high-risk families' were measured at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: The Feel4Diabetes-intervention is expected to provide evidence-based results and key learnings that could guide the design and scaling-up of affordable and potentially cost-effective population-based interventions for the prevention of type 2 diabetes.