Abstract
Objective: This study examines the association between the household income of families and food intake of Japanese schoolchildren.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey using a self-reported questionnaire was conducted among children in the 5th grade (aged 10~11 years) and their parents. The children were chosen from 19 different elementary schools in five cities and one village across four prefectures in eastern Japan. The survey was carried out from September through December 2013. Complete data sets from 920 pairs of children and parents were analyzed.
We classified the subjects into two groups based on the poverty line: low and high household income. Chi-squared tests were used to analyze the frequency (per week) of three aspects: (1) meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and late-night meals), (2) intake of various foods in the family, and (3) eating out. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the associations between household income and intake frequency.
Results: The chi-squared tests showed a significant association between the frequencies each of breakfast, vegetable consumption, snack noodles, eating out, and household income. The low-income group had lower frequencies of breakfast, vegetable consumption and eating out. They had higher intake frequencies of meat/fish products and snack noodles than the high-income group.
Conclusions: The results show that the household income of families is associated with the food intake frequency of Japanese schoolchildren.
