Impact of childhood experience and adult well-being on eating preferences and behaviours.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the relative contribution of childhood experience, measured by childhood violence and childhood happiness, and adult well-being on adult eating preferences and behaviours, independent of proximal factors such as current deprivation.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional, stratified, randomised sample survey using retrospective measures of childhood violence and happiness and self-reported measures of current well-being.

SETTING

The North West Region of England between September 2012 and March 2013.

PARTICIPANTS

Individuals aged 18-95-year-olds from randomly selected households (participation was successful for 90% of eligible households and 78% of the total visited addresses; n=11,243).

OUTCOMES: Dichotomised measures for preference of healthy foods or 'feel good' foods and low or high daily fruit and vegetable consumption.

RESULTS

After correcting for demographics, combined categories for childhood experience and dichotomised measures of adult well-being were found to be significantly related to adult food preferences and eating behaviours. Participants with unhappy and violent childhoods compared to those with happy and non-violent childhoods had adjusted ORs (95% CI, significance) of 2.67 (2.15 to 3.06, p<0.001) of having low daily fruit and vegetable intake (two or less portions) and 1.53 (1.29 to 1.81, p<0.001) of choosing 'feel good' foods over foods which were good for their long term health.

CONCLUSIONS

Daily intake of fruit and vegetables, linked to non-communicable diseases, and preference for 'feel good' foods, linked to obesity, are affected by childhood experience and adult well-being independent of demographic factors. Preventative interventions which support parent-child relationships and improve childhood experience are likely to reduce the development of poor dietary and other health-risk behaviours.