World Summit on Obesity and Weight Management February 22-23, 2023 Zurich, Switzerland

Maria Michelle Papamichael is a registered dietician and sports/exercise nutritionist with the Hellenic and British Dietetic Associations, who has dedicated her life to educating people of all ages about the importance of good nutrition and exercise in the prevention and management of disease as well as in improving health and overall well-being throughout the lifespan. Her main research interests lie in public health nutrition, childhood obesity, dietary behaviours, and pediatric asthma. She has published several book chapters and articles in scientific journals and continues to participate in a broad range of national and international conferences throughout the globe. Furthermore, she is actively involved in European research programs.

PROBLEM: Strong evidence suggests that the obesogenic environment, including the home [1], plays a crucial role in children’s weight development [2]. This study aimed to investigate differences in household food factors and daily intake of regular soft drinks in European children (n= 12,211, age range 5-12 y.o) with overweight/obesity (OW/OB). METHODS: Family Sociodemographic, home food availability, and children’s intake of regular soft drinks were compiled from self –administered questionnaires completed by parents from the Feel4Diabetes Cohort study conducted from 2016 to 2018 in six European countries [3, 4]. During school hours, children’s weight and height were measured, and BMI (kg/m2) was classified into underweight (UW), normal-weight (NW), overweight, and obesity groups based on International Obesity Task Force sex- and age-specific thresholds [5]. Cross-sectional analyses were performed using binary regression models to measure the magnitude and direction of associations between the household food environment and children’s daily intake of regular soft drinks by BMI category. FINDINGS: Approximately 15% (n = 1,657/10,878) of European children consumed regular soft drinks daily. In the multivariate model, after adjusting for children’s sex, mothers’ BMI, and educational level, household availability of commercial fruit juice, regular soft drinks, and salty snacks/fast food at a frequency of ‘always/often’ were associated with higher intake of children’s regular soft drink intake daily (odds ratios (ORs) ranged from 1.59 – 6.69), independent of BMI category, whereas household availability of sugarless fruit juice, with lower intake (UW/NW OR 0.54; OW/OB: OR 0.46). Contrastingly, the availability of fresh fruit ‘always/often’ was inversely associated with children of OW/OB only (OR 0.31) and diet soft drinks in the UW/NW group (OR 0.53). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study imply that in the real-life family setting, consideration of the obesogenic home food environment and encouraging home availability of healthy food choices such as fresh fruit might effectively reduce children’s regular soft drink intake.