Dietary patterns in Mexican preschool children are associated with stunting and overweight.

Objective: To evaluate the association between dietary patterns, stunting, and overweight among Mexican preschoolers.

Methods: This study was conducted with anthropometric (weight, height/length), sociodemographic (age, gender, education level of household head, socioeconomic status, country region and area, ethnicity, and beneficiary of social programs), and dietary data (Semiquantitative-food frequency questionnaire) on children aged from 1 to 4 years collected from the Mexican National Health and Nutrition Survey-2012. Dietary patterns were derived by principal components analysis. The association between dietary patterns, stunting, and overweight was assessed by prevalence ratios (PR), estimated by Poisson regression.

Results: In total, 1,112 preschoolers (mean age 3.06 years, SD = 1.08 years; 48.8% females) were included in the study; 11.9% of whom presented stunting, and 6.7% overweight. We identified four dietary patterns: Fruits and Vegetables [F&V], Western [W], Traditional [T], and Milk and Liquids [M&L]. Considering the lowest tertile of each dietary pattern as reference, the prevalence of stunting was 2.04 times higher [95%CI: 1.17-3.56] among children in the highest tertile of the "F&V" pattern. The prevalence of stunting was lower among children in the highest tertile of the "W" pattern [PR = 0.48; 95%CI: 0.27-0.85]. Overweight was negatively associated with the "F&V" dietary pattern [PR = 0.37; 95%CI: 0.16-0.85 for its highest tertile], and children whose consumption was mostly equivalent to the "T" pattern showed higher prevalence of stunting [PR = 1.74; 95%CI: 1.01-3.00].

Conclusions: The prevalence of stunting and overweight in a nationwide sample of Mexican preschoolers was associated with dietary patterns.