Journal: Nutrients, 2024, 16(7), 1080
Type of manuscript: Article
Title: Clusters in Infant Environmental Factors Influence School-Age Children’s Vegetable Preferences in Japan
Authors: Yudai Yonezawa *, Tomoka Okame, Nozomi Tobiishi, Yume Tetsuno, Miho Sakurai, Shigenori Suzuki, Yuji Wada
https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16071080
Website: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/16/7/1080
PDF Version: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/16/7/1080/pdf
Abstract: It remains unclear how the various environmental factors are combined in practice to in-fluence vegetable preferences in school-aged children. This study aimed to clarify the environmental factors during infancy and their association with vegetable preference in school-aged children. To find clusters of early childhood environmental factors, we conducted a factor analysis on 58 items related to early childhood environmental factors and a k-means cluster analysis using factors obtained. Association of the extracted factors and clusters with vegetable preferences was assessed by multiple regression analysis. Twelve factors relating to vegetable eating, cooking and harvesting experience and parental attitudes were extracted by factor analysis. Three clusters, “low awareness of experiences”, “high awareness” and “low positive encouragement”, were then extracted. In the multiple regression analysis, all 12 factors were found to be associated with vegetable preferences. Furthermore, it was found that the “high awareness” group had a significantly higher score for veg-etable preference than the “low awareness of experiences” group (β=0.56, 95% CI: 0.37–0.74). Thus, the study found that environmental factors during infancy, in isolation and combination, influenced vegetable preferences in school-aged children. Assessing the combination of various environmental factors during infancy may contribute to a better understanding of future vegetable preferences.