Meeting international screen-time guidelines is associated with healthy dietary patterns in Spanish schoolchildren

Abstract

Objective: the aim of this research was to explore the relationship between dietary pattern habits and compliance with screen-time guidelines in Spanish schoolchildren. Material and methods: a cross-sectional and associative study was performed in a total of 370 schoolchildren (44.9 % girls) aged 6-13 (8.7 ± 1.8) years. Results: for boys, those who did not meet these guidelines presented lower chances of eating vegetables regularly (OR = 0.50; 95 % CI = 0.28-0.89) or more than once a day (OR = 0.43; 95 % CI = 0.22-0.85). In girls, it was observed that those who did not meet the guidelines presented a lower probability of eating one piece of fruit (OR = 0.43; 95 % CI = 0.19-0.99) as well as a second piece (OR = 0.22; 95 % CI = 0.22-0.81), vegetables more than once a day (OR = 0.39; 95 % CI = 0.19-0.80), fish (at least 2-3 times/week) (OR = 0.40; 95 % CI = 0.20-0.78) and nuts (at least 2 or 3 times per week) (OR = 0.46; 95 % = 0.24-0.87). Conclusion: some healthy eating patterns, such as the consumption of fruits and vegetables, appeared to be more prevalent in those children who met the international screen-time guidelines.