The quality of young children's diets
2002
Lino, M. | Basiotis, P.P. | Gerrior, S.A. | Carlson, A.
To assess the dietary status of Americans and monitor changes in these patterns, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) developed the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and first computed the Index by using 1989 data. The HEI is a summary measure of the overall quality of people's diets (broadly defined in terms of adequacy, moderation, and variety). This article presents the HEI for young children (age 2 to 9) for 1994-96/98-the most recent years for which nationally representative food intake data are available to compute the Index. The HEI is calculated for these children because they were the only subpopulation on which food intake data were collected in 1998. Most young children (81 percent) had a diet that needed improvement or was poor. The quality of children's diets varied by their sociodemographic characteristics. The diets of young children were statistically different based on age, gender, household income, receipt of food stamps, food sufficiency, and area of residence.
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