Changes in Nutrition Habits of Lithuanian First-Grade Children

Objectives To assess changes of certain dietary habits among first-grade schoolchildren in Lithuania from 2008 to 2023 year. Materials and Methods The data from the results of Lithuanian Child Growth Surveillance Study (COSI) conducted according to the protocol and methodology developed by the WHO is presented. Each study round a national representative sample (n = 5800) of first-grade children in all ten counties of Lithuania was selected. A Family Record Form was used to gather information on a voluntary basis on children’s dietary intake. In total, 7730 parents were enrolled in the survey (response rate 72.3% (2008) and 57.8% (2023)). The Chi-square test was applied to determine the homogeneity of distributions between study groups, p value of 0.05 indicated a statistically significant difference between years. Results The rate of first-grade children having breakfast every day significantly increased (67.7% vs. 70.7%) as well as the proportion of children never consuming breakfast decreased (10.3% vs. 4.4%) statistically significantly (p <0.001). The number of children who never consume porridge has increased by 3 times (p <0.001). Positive changes in consuming vegetables (17.2% vs. 43.5%) and fresh fruits (31.3% vs. 42.7%) were observed in the year 2023 as the rate of children having these products every day has significantly increased (p <0.001). The rates of meat consumption significantly increased in most days (29.8% vs. 43.1%) and everyday (24.6% vs. 33%) groups (p <0.001), but the rates of fish consumption have decreased in most days (9.9% vs. 4.8%) and increased in never consume (9.3% vs. 15.7%) groups (p <0.001). The proportion of children consuming semi-skimmed and whole-fat milk every day has also decreased significantly (p <0.001). Everyday consumption of cheese, yoghurt, curd and other dairy products was higher in 2008 and significantly decreased in 2023 (p <0.001). The decrease in consumption of soft drinks was significantly lower (p <0.001) in never (9.6% vs. 2.9%) and some days (10% vs. 3%) consumption groups in 2023. Conclusions Positive and negative changes emerged in the dietary habits of first-graders, indicating that healthy nutrition is still a priority in children’s and parents education.