Are Physical Activity and Sedentary Screen Time Levels Associated With Food Consumption in European Adolescents? The HELENA Study

Comparison of Adherence to Mediterranean Diet between Spanish and German School-Children and Influence of Gender, Overweight, and Physical Activity

BACKGROUND

Poor dietary habits and low levels of physical activity (PA) have a strong tendency to track from childhood into adulthood. The Mediterranean Diet (MD) is known to be extremely healthy, associated with lower BMI and a lower risk of obesity in children and adolescents. Therefore, adherence to the MD was compared between Spanish (n = 182) and German (n = 152) children aged 10 to 13 years to examine a possible more "westernized" diet in Spain with a non-Mediterranean country, that traditionally prefers a "Western diet" and to determine the association between adherence to the MD and gender, body composition, and PA levels.

METHODS

In the German observational longitudinal cohort study and the Spanish cohort study, body composition and questionnaires (KIDMED, Diet Quality (IAES)) were obtained, and accelerometers (Actigraph) were applied to detect PA.

RESULTS

Girls had higher BMI-standard deviation score (SDS) than boys and Spanish girls were less active than boys. Differences were detected in MD habits, such as favorable fruit-, vegetables-, fish-intakes, and dairy products in Spanish children and unfavorable consumptions of fast food, processed bakery goods, candies, and sweet beverages in German children. Independently of country, girls, children with lower BMI-SDS and children with higher PA level were related with better diet quality.

CONCLUSION

Spanish children showed higher adherence to MD and diet quality (IAES) compared to German children, but there was a trend toward a more "westernized" diet. Gender, body composition, and PA influenced nutrition regardless of country.