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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Pediatric Obesity
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2024.1514535
This article is part of the Research Topic Novel Approaches to Diet, Exercise, and Drugs in Childhood Obesity and Metabolic Diseases View all articles

Cross-sectional and prospective associations between children's eating behavior and visceral fat area and trunk fat mass

Provisionally accepted
Youxin Wang Youxin Wang 1Fangjing Shen Fangjing Shen 1Ping-ping Zhang Ping-ping Zhang 1Miao Xu Miao Xu 1Danqi Qiu Danqi Qiu 1Hui Wang Hui Wang 2*Li Li Li Li 1*
  • 1 Ningbo First Hospital, Ningbo, China
  • 2 Peking University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Understanding children's eating behaviors is crucial for elucidating the etiology of childhood obesity. However, the relationship between these behaviors and abdominal fat accumulation remains poorly understood. This study aims to investigate this association in primary school children. Methods: This study included 1475 children aged 8-10 years in Ningbo, China. Body composition was measured both at baseline (September 2022) and after 9 months of follow-up (June 2023). Primary caregivers completed the Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ). A mixed-effects linear model was applied to analyze the relationships between children's eating behaviors and body composition. Results: Greater visceral fat area (VFA) was associated with greater slowness in eating (β=0.25 [0.02, 0.49]), greater food responsiveness (β=0.29 [0.14, 0.43]), increased emotional undereating (β=0.35 [0.17, 0.54]), and more emotional overeating (β=0.21 [0.02, 0.39]). Children with greater trunk fat mass (TrFM) tended to have greater food responsiveness (β=0.02 [0.01, 0.03]) and greater enjoyment of food (β=0.01 [0.00, 0.03]), increased emotional undereating (β=0.02 [0.01, 0.03]) and emotional overeating (β=0.02 [0.00, 0.03]). Prospectively, positive correlations were observed between VFA and food responsiveness (β=0.18 [0.02, 0.35]), as were emotional undereating (β=0.31 [0.10, 0.52]) and emotional overeating (β=0.24 [0.03, 0.46]). Similarly, TrFM was positively correlated with food responsiveness (β=0.02 [0.00, 0.03]), enjoyment of food (β=0.02 [0.00, 0.04]), emotional undereating (β=0.02 [0.01, 0.04]) and emotional overeating (β=0.02 [0.01, 0.04]). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that eating behaviors are significantly associated with abdominal fat accumulation in primary school children. Addressing specific eating behaviors may be crucial in mitigating abdominal fat and its related health risks.

    Keywords: Children, Abdominal Fat, Obesity, Overweight, eating behaviors

    Received: 21 Oct 2024; Accepted: 29 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Shen, Zhang, Xu, Qiu, Wang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Hui Wang, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, Beijing Municipality, China
    Li Li, Ningbo First Hospital, Ningbo, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.