2025/11/17 by Henna Vepsäläinen, Reetta Lehto, Anna M. Ruokolahti +6 · 1 voice
Medicine · #Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling #Nutritional Studies and Diet #Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0007114525105722
openalex created_date 2025/11/17 · openalex publication_date 2025/11/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Family meals are positively associated with healthier diets among children and parents. We aimed to deepen the understanding of these relationships by exploring the associations between shared meals and dietary quality among children, fathers and mothers. A subset of parent-child dyads (296 children aged 3-6 years, 103 fathers, 293 mothers) from the DAGIS Intervention baseline assessment was included in this cross-sectional study. The parents reported how often they shared meals with the child and filled in a food frequency questionnaire assessing their child's and their own food consumption. A Healthy Food Intake Index (HFII) describing dietary quality was calculated for all family members. We used linear regression to investigate the associations between shared meals and the HFII of the children, fathers and mothers. Models were adjusted for child's age and gender, parent's age and educational level and number of children in the household. Children whose fathers reported less frequently sharing a weekend lunch with the child had a lower HFII (B estimate -1·58, 95 % CI -2·66, -0·50). The association remained close to statistical significance with adjustments (B estimate -0·99, 95 % CI -2·17, 0·19). A less frequently shared weekend lunch was also borderline significantly associated with lower HFII among the fathers (adjusted model, B estimate -1·13, 95 % CI -2·30, 0·04). Fathers should be encouraged to share meals with their family, since it might have a role in the dietary quality of both children and fathers. Future studies should recognise fathers as important contributors to a healthy home food environment.