Healthy dietary habits associate with positive health and behavior, whereas unhealthy dietary habits associate with health problems and risk behavior during adolescence, according to a study published in Child: Care, Health and Development (2022).
The study included 7529 adolescents mean age 14.9 years) from the 2018 Luxembourg Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study.
Cluster analysis yielded five clusters of dietary habits: (1) healthy, (2) family meal and breakfast skippers, (3) sugar consumption, (4) unbalanced diet, and (5) unhealthy.
The healthy cluster was associated with better health and positive mental health and behavior, whereas the less healthy clusters were associated with worse health, mental health problems, and risk behavior.
The authors concluded that interventions should include dietary habits as a component of lifestyle modification to improve adolescents' health, well-being, and behavior.
Similarly, prevention specialists should target healthy eating patterns to enhance intervention outcomes on adolescent mental health and risk behaviors.
Read the full research abstract: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cch.13064