The influence of parents cooking skills on the diet of school-age children

Author(s)

Carla Adriano Martins

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Saúde Pública (FSP/CIR)
• Defense date: 2017-08-21

Examining board members

Carlos Augusto Monteiro; Inês Rugani Ribeiro de Castro; Semíramis Martins Álvares Domene; Rosa Wanda Diez Garcia; Patrícia Constante Jaime

• Advisor: Carlos Augusto Monteiro

Abstract

Introduction - Despite the importance of cooking skills for healthy eating, studies on this subject are scarce in Brazil. Objective - To study the influence of parents\' cooking skills on the quality of diet consumed at home among school-age children. Methods - Cross-sectional study, followed by an experimental, randomized and controlled study involving an educational intervention to improve parents\' cooking skills. The study population corresponds to child-parent pairs from nine private schools that provide integrated comprehensive services for students in São Paulo. Five schools were randomly allocated to the intervention group, and four to the control group. As part of this thesis, the Cooking Skills Index (CSI) was developed and evaluated. The CSI is a 0-100 index that measures the confidence regarding the performance of ten cooking skills considered facilitators to the implementation of the Brazilian Dietary Guidelines. Across the nine schools, 755 parents answered by telephone the CSI questionnaire and questions regarding their children food consumption at dinner the day before the interview (dietary recall). All the parents in the intervention group who answered the questionnaire (n=341) were invited to participate in a 10-hour course designed by the author of this thesis and taught by nutritionists from the partner schools in order to improve cooking skills. Parents who agreed to participate (n=81) were paired with parents of the control group according to sociodemographic variables. Linear regression analysis was used to test the association between the parents\' cooking skills and the contribution of ultraprocessed foods to the total children\'s dinner energy intake, adjusted for sociodemographic variables. The impact of the educational intervention on parents\' cooking skills and on children\'s diet quality was assessed by temporal changes within and between groups using crude and adjusted linear regression models. Results - The CSI presented Cronbach\'s alpha > 0.70, weighted quadratic kappa of 0.55, and adjusted kappa of 0.89. In the cross-sectional study the average age of the parents was 38.3 years old and of the children was 7.8. Parents were mostly women, white, married, college-educated, employed, with family per capita income of 1-3 minimum wages per month, and with high scores of cooking skills (CSI=78.8 points). Children\'s average dinner energy intake was 672.2 kcal, with 31.3% coming from ultra-processed foods. The cross-sectional study showed a significant decrease in ultra-processed food consumption at children\'s dinner with an increase of parents\' cooking skills confidence (β= -2.9; p= 0.014; adjusted β= -2.6; p=0.035). In the prospective study, there were no significant differences between the intervention and the control group regarding the temporal changes of parents\' cooking skills, as well as the share of ultraprocessed foods at children\'s dinner. Conclusions - The CSI showed high internal consistency and reproducibility, recommending its use in studies to evaluate cooking skills confidence in Brazil. The cross-sectional study indicated that the higher the parents\' cooking skills the lower the consumption of ultraprocessed foods by their children, but the educational intervention neither resulted in the increase in parents\' cooking skills nor in changes in the dietary pattern of children\'s dinner. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 14/10155-4 - The influence of parents' cooking skills on the diet of school-age children
• Grantee: Carla Adriano Martins
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate