Article Text
PDF
Abstract
Introduction This study aims to explore the prospective association between the dietary quality (DQ) of preschoolers and their health status in Hong Kong, with the body mass index as the main outcome variable.
Methods and analysis This prospective cohort study has recruited 3539 children aged between 2 and 4 years old, with a follow-up period of 4 years. Their diet was reported by their parents by a 3-day food diary, and their body weight and height were measured yearly with standardised instruments. Questionnaires were administered to parents to acquire information of the children’s prenatal development and dietary intake before their age of 2 years and of their baseline lifestyle and family backgrounds. The DQ was measured by the Healthy Eating Index as a continuous scale, while the exposure was defined as having a higher dietary quality score. Data were analysed using SPSS V.24. Linear and logistic regressions were used to examine the association of those predictive factors to the outcomes. Generalised estimating equations will be used to examine the longitudinal changes of the outcomes. A pilot study has been conducted, the preliminary results from which are presented in this cohort profile.
Ethics and dissemination This study has been approved by the Joint Chinese University of Hong Kong and New Territory East Cluster Clinical Research Ethics Committee (CREC Ref No: 2013–632). Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects. The results will be published in due course.
- community child health
- public health
- epidemiology
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Footnotes
Contributors WWST and AL prepared the first draft of manuscript. AL, WWST, CKC, VMK and LWM designed the protocol including the selection or refinement of measuring tools. CKC and KL were involved in pilot testing and are involved in ongoing data collection and analysis. AL is the principal investigator of the project overseeing the conduct of the study, whereas WWST is the second principal investigator overseeing the data management. CKC is the coordinator of field work.
Funding The study is supported by Wyeth Nutrition in the form of a research grant to the university in accordance to university regulation and guidelines on research. The funding bodies are not involved in data collection and data analysis.
Competing interests None declared.
Ethics approval This study has been approved by the Joint Chinese University of Hong Kong and New Territory East Cluster Clinical Research Ethics Committee (CREC Ref No: 2013–632).
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement The study has just commenced. The corresponding author can be contacted for data if needed.
Collaborators Resources have not been forthcoming for providing open access to our data at the present, but we welcome collaboration from interested groups. In order to obtain information on data sharing, we invite researchers to contact us at alee@cuhk.edu.hk