Family Meal Environment and Adolescent Weight Status in Rural India

• In Event: 534 - Section on Children and Youth Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Health Outcomes

Abstract

The family meal environment is an area of interest for influences on adolescent weight status. Data from low and middle-income countries (LMICs) undergoing rapid socioeconomic changes and globalization is scant in this field. This environment has the possibility of impacting a child’s weight status on a communal, familial, and individual level. The main purpose of this study was to explore some of the social, dietary and lifestyle factors that could be related to the risk of overweight/obesity among adolescents in Vijayapura, India, an area with little research on this topic. Using data from the Family and Nutrition Survey (BLDE University’s Shri B.M. Patil Medical College, Vijayapura), we explore the relationship between adolescent weight status and family meal environment. This cross sectional survey was done on a representative sample of school going adolescents and their primary caregiver in an underdeveloped region of southern India. Our results show a larger proportion of overweight/obese adolescents reporting eating outside the home under-/normal weight adolescents. Significant associations were seen with adolescent weight status and primary caregiver weight status as well as socioeconomic status (SES) as measured via education level and reported family income per month. A large proportion of all adolescents in the sample reported eating meals in front of the television. These findings suggest more research in this area is of vital necessity to learn more about this relationship and to ascertain specific populations to target for future interventions.

Authors

• Rebecca Evelyn Jones, Emory University

• Solveig Argeseanu Cunningham, Emory University

• Shailaja Patil, BLDE University