Physical activity and dietary intake of saturated fat, sodium, and calories are well documented behavioral factors in the development of cardiovascular diseases (33,73,96). While it is suspected that the behavioral and environmental roots of obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and clinical CVD are present in childhood (4,44), there have been relatively few attempts to study the early development of dietary and physical activity behaviors. Knowledge of the determinants, stability, and relationships of childhood behaviors to physiologic risk variables could be useful for setting priorities and designing public health interventions for the next generations of youth. The proposed grant will allow for the analyses of data (HL 35109) which describe physical activity and dietary behaviors and their determinants among 351 Anglo and Hispanic children from low and middle socioeconomic status (SES) families followed from ages 4 to 7 years. Selection of possible determinants to be studied is based on social cognitive learning theory.
The specific aims of the study are as follows: 1. To study determinants of physical activity and dietary intake of fat, sodium, and calories, and changes in these behaviors in children. 2. To describe the development of salt taste preference in children, and to study determinants of salt taste preference (including parents' salt taste preference) and the stability or changes in this variable over time. 3. To determine the relationships between diet and physical activity practices and physiologic indicators of risk, such as blood pressure, skinfolds, body mass, and serum lipoproteins. 4. To describe, in children, the time trends and the degree of tracking of physical activity habits and nutritional intake of fat, sodium, and calories. This study's database will add significant new data on the determinants of dietary and physical activity behaviors in children. It is the only such large longitudinal database available on Mexican-American families and children and SES-comparable Anglo families and children. It will provide unique data, not previously available, on cultural differences and influences on health behavior among young children.
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