Supplemental Material for Quality Matters: A Meta-Analysis on Components of Healthy Family Meals

Objective: A higher frequency of family meals is associated with better diet quality and lower body mass index (BMI) in children. However, the effect sizes are small and it remains unclear which aspects of family meals contribute to these positive health outcomes. This meta-analysis synthesizes studies on social, environmental, and behavioral attributes of family meals to identify their building blocks that are related to better nutritional health in children. Methods: A systematic literature search (43 studies, 40,569 participants, 57 reported effect sizes) identified six different building blocks of healthy family mealtimes. Separate meta-analyses examined the association between each building block and children’s nutritional health. Age (children vs. adolescents), outcome type (BMI vs. diet quality), and socioeconomic status (SES; controlled vs. not controlled for SES) were examined as potential moderators. Results: Positive associations consistently emerged between five building blocks and children’s nutritional health: turning the TV off during meals (r = .08), higher food quality (r = .11), parental modeling of healthy eating (r = .11), positive atmosphere (r = .12), and longer meal duration (r = .20). Children’s involvement in meal preparation was associated with better diet quality (r = .08), but also with higher BMI (r = −.06). Very few moderating effects were found. Conclusions: How a family eats together shows larger associations with nutritional health than how often. Randomized control trials are needed to further verify these findings. The generalizability of the identified mealtime building blocks to other contexts of social eating is discussed, as are practical implications.

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The frequency of family meals and nutritional health in children: a meta-analysis

Obesity Reviews ◽

10.1111/obr.12659 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 19 (5) ◽

pp. 638-653 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

M. Dallacker ◽

R. Hertwig ◽

J. Mata

Keyword(s):

Meta Analysis ◽

Family Meals ◽

Nutritional Health

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Commercially available apps to support healthy family meals: User-testing of app utility, acceptability and engagement (Preprint)

JMIR mhealth and uhealth ◽

10.2196/22990 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Chelsea E. Mauch ◽

Rachel A. Laws ◽

Ivanka Prichard ◽

Anthony J. Maeder ◽

Thomas P. Wycherley ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Family Meals ◽

User Testing ◽

Healthy Family

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“In Today's Market, Your Food Chooses You”: News Media Constructions of Responsibility for Health through Home Cooking

Social Problems ◽

10.1093/socpro/spz006 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 67 (1) ◽

pp. 1-19 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Merin Oleschuk

Keyword(s):

Cultural Values ◽

Low Income ◽

News Media ◽

Family Meals ◽

Structural Constraint ◽

Neoliberal Ideology ◽

Media Constructions ◽

Healthy Family ◽

Important Exception ◽

Low Income Families

AbstractThis article examines North American national news media’s 2015–16 presentation of family meals. Analyzing 326 articles, I identify the ubiquity of a narrative of deterioration, or the presumption that families are replacing meals made from whole, unprocessed ingredients consumed communally around a table, with processed and pre-prepared foods eaten alone or “on the go”. In analyzing the construction of responsibility for this deterioration, I find that the sample predominately frames the production of healthy family meals as constrained by a food environment saturated with inexpensive, highly processed food, and dictated by the competing demands of paid work and inflated normative standards. Yet, when differentiating frames that define the social problem from those that offer solutions, I find that individualization prevails in the frames that target solutions. One important exception is media reporting on low-income families, which are framed as facing exceptional structural constraint. Analyzing these frames, I argue that neoliberal ideology that over-emphasizes individual agency and minimizes structural constraint operates in more subtle ways than previous literature suggests—showing some awareness of the difficulty of people’s lives, but prescribing solutions that leave individuals responsible for the outcomes. These findings offer implications for understanding dominant cultural values surrounding health and the family meal, as well as the allocation of responsibility for social problems within neoliberalism more broadly.

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Commercially available apps to support healthy family meals: User-testing of app utility, acceptability and engagement (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.22990 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Chelsea E. Mauch ◽

Rachel A. Laws ◽

Ivanka Prichard ◽

Anthony J. Maeder ◽

Thomas P. Wycherley ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Rating Scale ◽

Mobile App ◽

Healthy Food ◽

Family Meals ◽

Working Parents ◽

Time Saving ◽

System Usability Scale ◽

Healthy Family ◽

Food Provision ◽

Meal Planning

BACKGROUND Parents juggling caregiving and paid employment encounter a range of barriers in providing healthy food to their families. Mobile apps have the potential to help parents in planning, purchasing and preparing healthy family food. The utility and acceptability of apps to support parents is unknown. User perspectives of existing technology, such as commercially available apps can guide the development of evidence informed apps in the future. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to determine the feasibility of existing, commercially available apps for supporting healthy food provision practices of working parents. METHODS Working parents (n=133) were recruited online and completed a 10-item COM-B self-evaluation survey assessing their needs in relation to the provision of healthy family meals. Five apps were selected for testing, including a meal planning app, recipe app, recipe manager app, family organizer app and barcode scanning app. Survey items were mapped to app features, with a sub-sample of parents (n=67) allocated two apps each to trial simultaneously over 4-weeks. A semi-structured interview exploring app utility and acceptability, and an online survey including the System Usability Scale and the user version of the Mobile App Rating Scale (uMARS), followed app testing. Interview data were analyzed using a theoretical thematic approach. RESULTS Survey participants (n=133; age 34+4 years) were mainly mothers (n=130/133; 98%) and partnered (n=122/133; 92%). Participants identified a need for healthy recipes (n=109/133; 82% agreed/strongly agreed), and time for food provision processes (n=107/133; 80%). Engagement quality was the lowest rated domain of the uMARS (mean/app 3.0-3.7 of maximum 5). The family organizer, requiring a high level of user input, was rated the lowest for usability (median(IQR) 48(34:73)). In the interviews, participants weighed up the benefits of the apps (i.e. time saving) against the effort involved in using them in determining their acceptability. Organization was a sub-theme emerging from interviews, associated with the use of meal planners and shopping lists. These features were used in-time, as behavior was occurring. CONCLUSIONS Meal planning apps and features promoting organization present feasible, time saving solutions to supporting healthy food provision practices. The incorporation of automated planning features will ensure that apps have a wider application and do not add to the time burden of food provision. The behavior change potential of food provision apps may lie in their ability to be integrated into everyday life, promoting healthy food provision in-time.

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Appendix 3. Meta-analysis Methods

Issues in Toxicology - Formaldehyde ◽

10.1039/9781788010269-00357 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 357-368

Keyword(s):

Meta Analysis ◽

Analysis Methods

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The effects of low-ratio n-6/n-3 PUFA on biomarkers of inflammation: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Food & Function ◽

10.1039/d0fo01976c ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Yali Wei ◽

Yan Meng ◽

Na Li ◽

Qian Wang ◽

Liyong Chen

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Fatty Acid ◽

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid ◽

Inflammation Markers ◽

Pufa Supplementation ◽

Long Chain

The purpose of the systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine if low-ratio n-6/n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplementation affects serum inflammation markers based on current studies.

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