Association Between Dietary Patterns And Body Mass Index Of Primary And Junior High School Children In Accra Metropolitan Area

Abstract

Background: The analysis of dietary pattern has emerged as a useful epidemiological approach to understanding the diet-disease relationships in both adults and children. Child malnutrition is still being combated worldwide and the situation is even worse in Sub Saharan Africa. In Ghana, childhood malnutrition continuous to be alarming, while managing the incidence of underweight and micronutrient deficiencies, emerging research suggest that childhood obesity is also on the rise in Ghana. The Ghanaian diet is changing from the traditional foods to western diets and this transition has greatly influenced the diet pattern of Ghanaians and their children. Aim: To assess the possible relationship between the dietary patterns of school children and their Body Mass Index. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study design that used questionnaires from a secondary cross-sectional data at the Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, University of Ghana Dental School. This secondary data assessed the dietary habits and oral health of Primary and Junior High school children from both Private and Public schools in the Accra Metropolitan area. 512 questionnaires of students between ages 9-15 years were pooled for analysis in this study. Food Frequency, anthropometric data and demographic data of the school children was extracted from the questionnaire. IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 was used for analysis. Descriptive summaries were presented as frequencies for categorical variables and as means and standard deviations for continuous variables. The dietary patterns were determined by PCA analysis. Pearson’s correlation and simple linear regression tests were used to determine the association between dietary pattern scores and BMI as well as socio- demographic characteristics. An independent t-test was used to find the differences in means between males and females for weight, height, and BMI. Statistical significance was set as p<0.05. Results: Four (4) dietary patterns were identified: Fruits and Energy dense, Non-Traditional, Sweets and Protein and Dairy dietary patterns. The four (4) dietary patterns explained 37.7% of the total variance in the dietary intake data. More females (60.3%) than males (40.8%) were obese. The Fruit and Energy dense dietary pattern was significantly associated with age, class level, staying with parents, mother’s occupation, and a medium household SES. The Sweets and Protein dietary pattern was significantly associated with age, class level and high household SES. Both the Non-Traditional and Diary dietary pattern were significantly associated with mother’s education. The Non-Traditional and Dairy dietary patterns were significantly associated with BMI. Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of obesity among the female school children than their male counterpart. Four dietary patterns were identified and out of this number two dietary patterns thus, the Non-Traditional and Dairy dietary patterns were significantly associated with BMI. This study has also demonstrated that there is an association between dietary patterns and socio-demographic characteristics such as age, household SES and mother’s educational level.