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27 January 2025The MED4CHILD questionnaire, Created by a multidisciplinary team that includes researchers from the GENUD group (IIS Aragón and the University of Zaragoza), it will optimize the monitoring of eating habits in childhood and will contribute to improving public health interventions aimed at preventing diet-related diseases.
The greater the adherence to the Mediterranean diet of preschool students, the healthier their cardiometabolic profile. This is one of the conclusions obtained with the MED4CHILD questionnaire, a new tool that It allows us to identify dietary patterns and their relationship with health in the early stages of lifeThis project has been designed and developed by a team of researchers from the University of Zaragoza, the Aragón Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón), the Human Nutrition Unit of the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) and the Pere Virgili Health Research Institute (IISPV) and 5 other centers in Spain that are part of the Obesity and Nutrition area of CIBER (CIBEROBN), of the Carlos III Health Institute.
«The MED4CHILD questionnaire is a simple, quick and inexpensive tool that will allow the Mediterranean diet to be assessed and promoted in preschool children, so its use will have important health benefits for this population.", researchers point out.
The study, recently published in the prestigious scientific magazine European Journal of Pediatrics, was carried out with a sample of 858 children from the CORALS and MELIPOP cohorts. The results show that children with Those with a higher score on this questionnaire consumed more foods characteristic of the Mediterranean diet, such as fruits, vegetables, fish and nuts, and had a healthier cardiometabolic profile, including smaller waist circumference and lower blood triglyceride and insulin levels.
This new assessment differs from previous tools in that include recommended portions adapted to the child population, offering a more accurate assessment of adherence to the Mediterranean diet following the new lifestyles and rhythms of today's society. This advance has the potential to Optimize the monitoring of dietary habits in childhood and contribute to improving public health interventions aimed at preventing diet-related diseases.
The questionnaire is available for use in clinical and research settings, and is expected to serve as a basis for future studies in relation to the Mediterranean diet and its relationship with the development or management of nutrition and metabolism-related diseases in childhood.
The project has been co-led by Alicia Larruy-García, Dr. Pilar De Miguel-Etayo and Professor Luis Moreno, belonging to the GENUD group of the University of Zaragoza and the IIS Aragón, together with Dr. Nancy Babio and Professor Jordi Salas-Salvadó from the Rovira i Virgili University and the Pere Virgili Health Research Institute, all researchers at CIBEROBN.