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Age and time trends in eating frequency and duration of nightly fasting of German children and adolescents

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Abstract

Purpose

To describe age and time trends in eating occasion frequency (EOF), meal frequency (MF), snack frequency (SF) and duration of nightly fasting (DNF) in German children and adolescents.

Methods

9757 3-day dietary records of 1246 3–18-year-old participants of the open DONALD cohort study, collected 1985–2014, were analyzed for age and time trends using polynomial mixed-effects regression models. Eating occasions were either assigned to meals or snacks (>10 or ≤10 % of daily total energy intake per eating occasion). DNF was defined as the longest time span without energy intake within one night.

Results

EOF, MF and SF decreased with age (EOF: linear, quadratic, cubic trend p < 0.0001; MF: linear trend p < 0.0001; SF: linear, quadratic trend p < 0.0001). Time trend analyses revealed a wavelike time course for EOF (linear trend p = 0.0580, quadratic trend = 0.0039, cubic trend = 0.0015) and SF (linear trend p = 0.0055, quadratic trend p = 0.0005, cubic trend p = 0.0003). MF slightly increased until 2000 and decreased thereafter (linear trend p = 0.0012, quadratic trend p = 0.0047). Effect sizes of time trends in EOF, MF and SF were small. Boys’ and girls’ DNF decreased with age (in both: linear, quadratic, cubic trend p < 0.0001) and increased over the study period (boys: linear trend p = 0.0011, interaction of age and time p < 0.0001; girls: linear trend p = 0.0167).

Conclusion

EOF, MF and SF were higher in children than in adolescents, but, in contrast to other studies remained fairly stable over the study period. Decreasing DNF with age could reflect decreasing sleep durations. Additionally, DNF increased over the study period, probably due to an increase in breakfast skipping.

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Acknowledgments

The DONALD Study is financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. This analysis was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) (AL1794/1-1). With respect to the co-authorship of CH, the following applies: The German Diabetes Center is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Innovation, Science, Research and Technology of the State North Rhine-Westphalia. His participation in this project was supported in part by a grant from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD e.V.). The participation of all children and their families in the DONALD Study is gratefully acknowledged. We also thank the DONALD staff for carrying out the anthropometric measurements, for administering the questionnaires, and for collecting and coding the dietary records.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IEL-Nutritional Epidemiology, DONALD Study, University of Bonn, Heinstueck 11, 44225, Dortmund, Germany

    Sarah Roßbach, Tanja Diederichs, Katja Bolzenius, Anette E. Buyken & Ute Alexy

  2. Institute for Clinical Diabetology, German Diabetes Center, Leibniz Center for Diabetes Research at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Auf’m Hennekamp 65, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Christian Herder

  3. German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, München-Neuherberg, Germany

    Christian Herder

Authors
  1. Sarah Roßbach
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  2. Tanja Diederichs
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  3. Katja Bolzenius
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  4. Christian Herder
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  5. Anette E. Buyken
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  6. Ute Alexy
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Correspondence to Ute Alexy.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

The DONALD Study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Bonn, Germany.

Informed consent

All assessments in the DONALD Study were performed with parental and later on participants’ written informed consent.

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Roßbach, S., Diederichs, T., Bolzenius, K. et al. Age and time trends in eating frequency and duration of nightly fasting of German children and adolescents. Eur J Nutr 56, 2507–2517 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-016-1286-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-016-1286-x

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