(P07-37-26) Higher Diet Quality Among Children Living in Urban vs. Rural Areas of American Samoa

Objectives: There is a lack of published studies on dietary intake environment or context and diet quality of young children in American Samoa. The objective of this study is to identify characteristics of young American Samoan children who have higher diet quality.

Methods: This descriptive study used cross-sectional data from the community cluster sampled Children’s Healthy Living (CHL) study collected in 2011-2013.. This study examined energy intake and diet quality of 586 children. Data was collected from 2 to 8 year old children residing in 6 selected communities in American Samoa. The dependent variables were drawn from the CHL Food Activity Logs (FALs, or food records) from children. Child diet quality was assessed using the Healthy Eating Index 2020 (HEI-2020). The independent variables were derived from child and household demographic questionnaires. Tools contained both English and Samoan translations. Dietary variables were examined for frequencies and means using SPSS statistical software. General linear regression examined the relationship between descriptive characteristics and diet quality (HEI 2020 scores) and energy intake (kcal/day).

Results: Differences were found between urban and rural communities. Rural communities had significantly higher energy intake (2469± 54.25 kcal/day) compared to urban communities (2199± 52.24 kcal/day), but significantly lower Total HEI 2020 scores (50.35±0.58 vs. 53.42±0.55) while the inverse was true for urban communities. Urban communities also scored higher in Saturated Fats (6.47±0.15 vs. 5.93±0.15) and Added Sugars (7.90±0.12 vs. 7.06±0.12), being reverse-scored this means they consumed less of these food components compared to rural communities. There were also differences in Total Vegetables (2.07±0.06 vs.1.84±0.07) and Whole Grains (1.89±0.11 vs.0.84±0.11), with urban areas having significantly higher scores than rural areas.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that children who live in urban communities had higher diet quality than those living in rural communities.

Funding Sources: CHL Food Systems Grant no. 2021-68012-35899