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  • Original Article
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Maternal and pediatric nutrition

GOCS cohort: children's eating behavior scores and BMI

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objective:

In Chile, approximately one in three children under 6 years of age reported overweight/obese, while one in four children in elementary school suffer from obesity. There is a paucity of population-based information on the influence of childhood eating behavior on anthropometric measures related to obesity. To assess the association between eating behavior scores and Body Mass Index (BMI) z-scores in 7–10-year-old Chilean children.

Subjects/Methods:

We conducted a cross-sectional study in 1058 children aged 7–10 (51% girls) from the ‘Growth and Obesity Chilean Cohort Study’ (GOCS). Direct measures of weight and height were used to compute BMI z-scores according to World Health Organization (WHO) curves. Children were classified as normal weight (−1<1 s.d.), overweight (1<2 s.d.) and obese (2 s.d.). Eating behavior scores were measured through the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ), previously adapted and validated for Chilean children. Multiple linear regressions were carried out using BMI z-score as the outcome and eating behavior scores as explanatory variables. All models were adjusted by age and gender.

Results:

BMI z-scores were positively associated with pro-intake scores in the subscales ‘enjoyment of food’, ‘emotional overeating’ and ‘food responsiveness’ (P<0.0001). Contrary to other studies, ‘desire for drinks’ scores were also associated with BMI z-scores (P<0.0001). In contrast, food-avoidant ‘satiety responsiveness’, ‘slowness in eating’ and ‘food-fussiness’ scores were negatively associated with BMI z-scores (P<0.0001).

Conclusion:

We found a significant relationship between eating behavior scores and BMI z-scores in Chilean children, showing that BMI in 7–10-year-old Chilean children is positively associated with pro-intake eating behavior scores and negatively associated with anti-intake eating behavior scores. The identification of specific eating behaviors patterns related to obesity will provide important information for the implementation of prevention programs for this disease.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by FONDECYT 1100206, 1120326 and 1150416.

Author contributions

The authors’ responsibilities were as follows—US, GW and JS designed the research and wrote the manuscript; US analyzed the data and had primary responsibility for the final content. CC and RU were final reviewers for scientific content and language. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to R Uauy.

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Sánchez, U., Weisstaub, G., Santos, J. et al. GOCS cohort: children's eating behavior scores and BMI. Eur J Clin Nutr 70, 925–928 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2016.18

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