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Snack cost and percentage of body fat in Chinese children and adolescents: a longitudinal study

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European Journal of Nutrition Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Only a few studies examined the relationship between snack cost and change in the percentage of body fat in children. We thus conducted a longitudinal study to investigate whether high snack cost is associated with fast increase in the percentage of body fat in Chinese children.

Methods

The study included 2368 children (1126 girls and 1242 boys, aged 6–14 years). Percentage of body fat was repeatedly assessed by bioelectrical impedance analysis in 2014 (baseline), 2015 and 2016. Snack cost in 2014 was estimated by self-report associated with purchasing snacks at school and classified into low, moderate, and high group. Association between snack cost and repeated percentage of body fat was analyzed with linear mixed models, adjusting for demographic factors, diet, physical activity, and parental BMI and education.

Results

High snack cost was significantly associated with a fast increase in the percentage of body fat over time (p trend = 0.04). Adjusted difference in annual increase rate in percentage of body fat between the high and low snack cost group was 0.31% [95% confident interval (CI) 0.04%, 0.58%], after adjusting for potential confounders. The impacts of snack cost on change in the percentage of body fat were more pronounced in boys, younger participants and those with higher BMI z-score at the baseline, relative to their counterparts (p interaction < 0.001 for all).

Conclusions

High snack cost was associated with more gain of body fat in Chinese school-aged children.

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the Project HOPE (US based health education charity organization) AFINS (the Abbot Fund Institute of Nutrition Science) Program (AFINS-HOPE-2013-06), and by the grants from Pu Dong Medical Bureau (PW2016D-05).

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Author notes

  1. Yanping Wan and Xiang Gao contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Nutrition, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200127, China

    Renying Xu, Yiquan Zhou, Xiaomin Zhang, Zhiqi Chen & Yanping Wan

  2. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Shanghai, China

    Renying Xu & Yanping Wan

  3. School of Public Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, China

    Yun Li

  4. Department of Nutritional Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Xiang Gao

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  1. Renying Xu
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  4. Xiaomin Zhang
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Correspondence to Yanping Wan or Xiang Gao.

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Xu, R., Zhou, Y., Li, Y. et al. Snack cost and percentage of body fat in Chinese children and adolescents: a longitudinal study. Eur J Nutr 58, 2079–2086 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-018-1769-z

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