The research, conducted במסגרת the CORALS project, analyzed 1,208 boys and girls from seven Spanish cities (Barcelona, Córdoba, Pamplona, Reus, Santiago de Compostela, Valencia and Zaragoza) and identified four profiles: avid, avoidant, typical and controlling.
Children with an avid profile show greater interest in and responsiveness to food, while those with an avoidant profile tend to experience greater satiety, eat more slowly and be more selective. Children with a typical profile display a more balanced pattern, without any particularly pronounced traits, while those with a controlling profile enjoy food but show a lower impulsive response to it.
The results show that these profiles are differently associated with various body indicators. In general, children with an avid profile have higher body composition values, while those with an avoidant profile show lower values. The study also identifies differences between boys and girls.
The controlling profile is associated with lower body fat values in girls and greater fat-free mass in boys, suggesting that the same eating behavior profile may be differently related to body composition depending on sex.
One of the study’s main contributions is precisely its analysis of eating behaviors jointly rather than as isolated characteristics. “Identifying eating behavior profiles instead of analyzing isolated behaviors makes it possible to better understand how boys and girls actually relate to food in their daily context. These results pave the way for more personalized prevention and nutritional monitoring strategies from the preschool stage onward,” say the researchers from the GENUD group (Growth, Exercise, Nutrition and Development).
Identifying these profiles from an early age could also help recognize different patterns in children’s relationship with food and facilitate more personalized monitoring of their growth and development.
To analyze these behaviors, families completed the Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ), which assesses eight traits related to food approach and avoidance. This information was combined with anthropometric measurements of the participants to study their association with different body composition indicators.
The study, titled Eating Behavior Latent Profiles and Their Associations With Body Composition in Early Childhood: The CORALS Cohort, was recently published in the scientific journal Obesity. The research was conducted by researcher Andrea Jimeno-Martínez under the supervision of Dr. Guiomar Masip, Dr. María Luisa Miguel-Berges and Dr. Luis A. Moreno, principal investigator of the GENUD group.
The research also involved other CIBEROBN groups and institutions including Rovira i Virgili University and the Pere Virgili Research Institute (URV-IISPV), the Maimonides Institute for Biomedical Research of Córdoba (IMIBIC), the Santiago Health Research Institute (IDIS), Santiago University Hospital, the University of Valencia, the University of Navarra, the Navarre Health Research Institute (IdiSNA) and the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) in Barcelona.
IIS ARAGÓN
IIS Aragón is the Health Research Institute formed by the Lozano Blesa and Miguel Servet University Hospitals, primary healthcare services, the University of Zaragoza and the Aragón Institute of Health Sciences. The objectives of IIS Aragón are to bring together basic and applied research, clinical research and healthcare services; create a high-quality research, healthcare and teaching environment integrating healthcare professionals, specialists in training, and postgraduate and undergraduate students; and establish an ideal setting for attracting talent and locating major scientific and technological facilities.
