Eating meals with parents is associated with better quality of diet for Brazilian adolescents

The objective was to investigate how often Brazilian adolescents eat meals with their parents and verify the association between this habit and quality of the diet. Data were from the Brazilian National Survey of School Health (PeNSE-2015). The sample consisted of adolescents enrolled in the ninth grade in public and private schools, ranging in age from 11 to 19 years. The target exposure was eating meals with parents (0-4 and ≥ 5 days/week) and the outcomes were frequent consumption (≥ 5 days/week) of healthy and unhealthy dietary markers. Healthy diet scores (range 0-21) and unhealthy diet scores (range 0-35) were based on total days that the adolescent reported consuming each of the dietary markers. Poisson and linear regression models were used, adjusted by sociodemographic variables. Frequent sharing of meals with parents (≥ 5 days/week) was seen in 74% (95%CI: 73.4-74.7) of the adolescents. Those reporting this habit showed higher likelihood of frequent consumption of beans (PR = 1.22; 95%CI: 1.19-1.26), fruits (PR = 1.34; 95%CI: 1.28-1.39), and vegetables (PR = 1.39; 95%CI: 1.34-1.44), and lower likelihood of frequent consumption of sweets (PR = 0.91; 95%CI: 0.88-0.94), ultra-processed salty foods (PR = 0.91; 95%CI: 0.87-0.94), and fried salty snacks (PR = 0.85; 95%CI: 0.80-0.90). Eating meals with parents was positively associated with healthy diet scores and inversely associated with unhealthy diet scores . Eating meals with parents is a common habit in Brazilian adolescents and is associated with better quality of diet.