CORRELATION BETWEEN APPETITIVE TRAITS AND DIET QUALITY OF YOUNG CHILDREN IN NORTH JAKARTA

Appetitive traits as a behavioural factor can contribute to greater or lower food intake among children. However, gaps exist in the literature examining appetitive traits and diet quality among children. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the correlation between appetitive traits and diet quality among children aged 2-6 years in North Jakarta. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Pejagalan village, North Jakarta. A total of 263 subjects were included in this study. Data collection was performed from January to April 2020. Children’s appetitive trait was measured using a validated child eating behaviour questionnaire (CEBQ), and the Diet Quality Index-International (DQII) was used to calculate diet quality scores in children. Most subjects had a DQII score below 60, indicating that the diet quality in children was classified as poor. Based on the CEBQ score, desire to drink, emotional undereating and satiety responsiveness were the common traits in our subjects. Using the Spearman test, we found that emotional overeating was negatively correlated with children’s diet quality score (r = -0.13, p-value < 0.05). Linear regression models showed that food responsiveness was a positive predictor of the ‘variety’ component (β = 0.16, p-value < 0.05), and satiety responsiveness was found as a positive predictor of the moderation component of diet quality (β = 0.17 p-value < 0.05). These findings suggest the potential use of tools, such as the children's emotional overeating assessment, food responsiveness and satiety responsiveness assessments, to identify the risk of poor diet quality and plan an integrated intervention for dietary improvement among children.