Changes in diet quality across life transitions from adolescence to early adulthood: a latent growth analysis.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2024 ; 120: 1215-1224.
Tao Y, Wall M, Larson N, Neumark-Sztainer D, Winpenny EM
DOI : 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2024.08.017
PubMed ID : 39510726
PMCID : PMC11600111
URL : https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0002916524007135
Abstract
Adolescence to early adulthood is a period of multiple life transitions. These transitions, along with changing resources and contexts, could contribute to significant changes in diet, which may persist into later adulthood.
We investigated diet quality trajectories from age 15 to 31 y and changes in diet quality associated with life transitions by sex.
Data from the Project EAT (Eating and Activity in Teens and Young Adults) study in Minnesota, the United States were used to examine diet quality among a longitudinal cohort (n = 2524) across 4 waves (mean ages of 15, 19, 25, and 31 y). Average within-person changes in DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) scores were analyzed using sex-specific latent growth models, incorporating underlying growth trajectories, 5 life transitions, and baseline sociodemographic and health characteristics.
Both sexes followed a quadratic trajectory of DASH scores, showing decreases in diet quality from Wave 1 to 2 followed by increases until Wave 4. However, males had increasingly worse diet quality than females. Compared with no such transition, leaving the parental home between Waves 1 and 2, was associated with transient decreases in diet quality at Wave 2 only for males (β: -2.34; 95% confidence interval [CI]: -3.57, -1.11). For females, cohabitating with a partner and becoming a parent between Waves 3 and 4 were related to decreases (β: -1.96; 95% CI: -3.45, -0.47) and increases (β: 1.85; 95% CI: 0.47, 3.23), respectively, in diet quality at Wave 4. Leaving full-time education and starting full-time employment showed negative and positive associations, respectively, with long-term diet quality for both sexes.
Diet quality remained suboptimal throughout adolescence and improved across early adulthood. Targeted dietary interventions are welcome for young people who leave their parental home early or do not enter a structured school or workplace environment and for addressing sex differences in diet quality associated with family-related life transitions.