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Food and health

Dietary patterns are associated with obesity in Mexican schoolchildren

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 74, pages 1201–1209 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Background

The prevalence of overweight and obesity in Mexican schoolchildren has increased in the past three decades. Dietary pattern approaches to assess diet have been used to study the relation between nutrition and chronic conditions.

Objective

The objective of this study is to analyze the association between dietary patterns (DP) and overweight and obesity in Mexican schoolchildren.

Methods

We analyzed information from schoolchildren who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Survey 2012 (ENSANUT-2012). Dietary information was obtained through a 24-h recall of 2751 children (5–11 year). Foods were classified into 33 groups, and the DPs were identified by cluster analysis (k-means method). Weight and height were measured to estimate the body mass index (BMI), by classifying overweight if the Z score was >1 and ≤2 standard deviations (SD), and obesity when the Z score was >2SD. To analyze the association, a Poisson regression model was used, adjusting by age, region, area of residence, socioeconomic status (SES), and the survey design.

Results

Four DPs were identified: “Traditional”, “Industrialized”, “Varied”, and “Modern”. The “Modern” DP was associated with obesity (PR = 1.7) (p < 0.05) compared with the “Traditional” DP.

Conclusions

The “Modern” DP could be influencing the development of obesity in Mexican schoolchildren. The promotion of healthy food and public health strategies to those food groups that should be discouraged are necessary to reverse the obesity epidemic in Mexican children.

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Fig. 1: Energy contribution of food groups by dietary patterns in Mexican schoolchildren.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación en Nutrición y Salud, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública., Av. Universidad 655, Col. Santa María Ahuacatitlán, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México

    Claudia Gabriela García-Chávez, Eric Monterrubio-Flores & Sonia Rodríguez-Ramírez

  2. Dirección General, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública., Av. Universidad 655, Col. Santa María Ahuacatitlán, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México

    Juan A. Rivera

Authors
  1. Claudia Gabriela García-Chávez
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  2. Juan A. Rivera
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  3. Eric Monterrubio-Flores
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  4. Sonia Rodríguez-Ramírez
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Contributions

The author contributions were as follows: CGG-C, SR-R, and JAR designed the research; CGG-C and EM-F performed statistical analysis; CGG-C and SR-R interpreted the results; CGG-C drafted the paper; CGG-C had the primary responsibility for the final content. All authors read and approved the final paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sonia Rodríguez-Ramírez.

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García-Chávez, C.G., Rivera, J.A., Monterrubio-Flores, E. et al. Dietary patterns are associated with obesity in Mexican schoolchildren. Eur J Clin Nutr 74, 1201–1209 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-020-0598-3

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