Eating behaviors, dietary patterns and weight status in emerging adulthood and longitudinal associations with eating behaviors in early childhood

(2022) 19:139 Dubois et al. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-022-01376-z Open Access RESEARCH Eating behaviors, dietary patterns and weight status in emerging adulthood and longitudinal associations with eating behaviors in early childhood Lise Dubois1* , Brigitte Bédard1, Danick Goulet1, Denis Prud’homme2, Richard E. Tremblay3,4 and Michel Boivin5 Abstract Background: Eating behaviors may contribute to differences in body weight and diet over time. Our study aims to examine how eating behaviors of young adults relate to their current weight status and dietary patterns and to explore longitudinal associations with eating behaviors in early childhood. Methods: Study participants are young adults (n = 698) taking part in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. At age 22, eating behaviors were assessed using the Adult Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Dietary patterns were derived from information collected by food frequency questions. Weight status was based on self-reported data. Information on eating behaviors in childhood had been collected when participants were 2.5 to 6 years old. Pearson’s correlations were used to determine associations between adult eating behaviors and body mass index. Simple and multivariate linear regression analyses were used to examine associations between eating behaviors and dietary patterns at age 22, and longitudinal associations with behaviors in early childhood. Ordinal logistic regression analyses were used to assess associations between overeating and fussy eating in childhood and weight status at age 22. Results: Body mass index was positively correlated with Emotional overeating, Enjoyment of food, and Food responsiveness and negatively correlated with Satiety responsiveness, Emotional undereating, Slowness in eating and Hunger. A Healthy dietary pattern was positively associated with both Enjoyment of food and Hunger, and negatively associated with Food fussiness. Inversely, a Beverage-rich dietary pattern was negatively associated with Enjoyment of food and positively associated with Food fussiness. A Protein-rich pattern was positively associated with Enjoyment of food, while a High energy density pattern was positively associated with Food fussiness. Young adults with higher scores for fussy eating in early childhood were more likely to manifest Food fussiness and Emotional undereating, and less likely to adopt a Healthy dietary pattern. Young adults with higher scores for overeating in early childhood were less likely to show traits such as Slowness in eating and more likely to be overweight. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that eating behaviors in childhood have long-term influence on diet and weight status, thereby reinforcing the importance of early interventions that promote healthy eating. *Correspondence: 1 School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, 600 Peter Morand, Ottawa, ON K1G 5Z3, Canada Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativeco mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Dubois et al. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act (2022) 19:139 Page 2 of 11 Keywords: Eating behavior, Diet, Weight, Longitudinal study, Children, Adults, Appetitive traits, Food acceptance Background Diet is recognized as one of the key modifiable factors for obesity prevention [1]. In developed countries such as Canada, many young people now reach adulthood overweight or obese [2], a condition that puts them at higher risk for premature death from chronic disease [3, 4]. During “emerging adulthood” (ages 18 to 25) [5], most young adults transition from high school to college or university, as well as to part- or full-time work. They leave their parents’ homes to live alone, with friends, or as couples; some start families [5]. This developmental stage requires that they learn how to choose, buy, and prepare food and meals daily, activities that can pose dietary and nutritional challenges [5, 6]. Indeed, a variety of studies have confirmed that this transition period coincides with declines in diet quality‚ accompanied by rapid changes in weight [5–7]. When compared to childhood and adolescence, health-enhancing behaviors (e.g., diet, physical activity) in emerging adulthood has not received the attention they deserve by public health research [4]. This oversight is critical because emerging adulthood offers opportunities for interventions targeting excess weight and, more broadly, for obesity prevention [5, 6]. Indeed, as young adults construct their personal, familial, and social identities, they typically become more receptive than older adults to adopting lifelong, healthy lifestyles [5]. Preventive interventions at this age are also timely because a large proportion of these young adults are‚ or will eventually become parents who are likely to pass their dietary habits on to the next generation. Designing evidence-based preventive interventions among young adults would benefit from a keen understanding of eating behaviors that contribute to body weight and dietary habits over time. To some extent, these eating behaviors reflect family attitudes and customs, as well as tastes and preferences developed earlier in life [8, 9]. They may also be influenced by genetic factors underpinning food intake regulation and taste predispositions [10, 11]. In childhood, selective eating behaviors (picky/fussy eating) have been associated with reduced enjoyment of food, smaller meals, slow eating, higher liquid intakes, and more limited dietary variety [12, 13], while overeating and fast eating have been associated with higher body mass index (BMI) [14, 15]. Previous research by our team indicated that preschool-aged children who were perceived as fussy by their mothers tended to under-consume certain types of food, such as fruit, vegetables, and meat (and alternatives) [16]. Young children perceived as eating too much or too fast had higher energy (...truncated)