PhD project The research project aims to investigate what methods are applied in studies of children's diet, and how dietary data are assessed in terms of validity and reproducibility. Furthermore, the research project aims to investigate what toddlers eat, including dietary patterns, food choices and occurence of gluten-containing foods.
Dietary intake during early childhood is of both short-term and long-term significance for health and development, and therefore an important field of research. Several different methods are used for assessment of diet and dietary patterns in research. These methods are commonly associated with several errors, and therefore it is of great importance that the dietary data gathered by these methods are examined and assessed for validity. The main focus of this research project are dietary assessment methodology and dietary patterns during early childhood.
The diet in early chilldhood is of great importance for health and development. At what age children are introduced for different tastes and textures impacts the development of food preferences and dietary patterns. The timing of introduction of gluten-containing foods, the amount of gluten and the overall dietary pattern during early childhood are associated with health outcome.
Examination of diet and diet-related factors is a complex task, why four substudies with different perspectives are planned:
I) A review of dietary assessment methods and methods to assess validity and/or reproducibility when studying the diet of young children.
II) A validation study aiming to assess the validity of a food frequency questionnaire administered within the NothPop-study.
III) A longitudinal study investigating the diet by 9 and 18 months of age, specifically focusing on the occurence of gluten-containing foods and time of introduction to different food groups.
IV) An interview study concerning guardians' experiences and perceptions of implementing dietary recommendations, and what they describe as factors influencing their food choices.
