Food & Nutrition Research · 8 authors, 5 centres
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This cross-sectional study of 721 Finnish preschoolers found that adherence to a sweets-and-treats dietary pattern was inversely associated with cold prevalence and tended to be inversely associated with gastroenteritis risk and antibiotic use, while a health-conscious pattern was positively associated with cold prevalence — results the authors interpret as likely driven by parental recall and healthcare-seeking behavior rather than biological effects.
This cross-sectional study analyzed data from 721 Finnish preschoolers aged 3–6 years from the DAGIS survey. Dietary patterns were derived from parental food frequency questionnaires using principal component analysis, yielding three patterns: sweets-and-treats, health-conscious, and vegetables-and-processed meats. Outcomes — common colds, gastroenteritis episodes, and antibiotic courses over the past year — were retrospectively reported by parents without physician confirmation or standardized reporting guidelines. Logistic and negative binomial regression models adjusted for age, sex, household children, preschool attendance frequency, family education, and probiotic use. Moderate and high adherence to the sweets-and-treats pattern was inversely associated with cold prevalence (PR: 0.89 and PR: 0.88, respectively, vs. low adherence), and moderate adherence was associated with lower gastroenteritis risk (OR: 0.63) and antibiotic prevalence (PR: 0.77). Conversely, high adherence to the health-conscious pattern was positively associated with cold prevalence (PR: 1.13). No significant associations were found for the vegetables-and-processed meats pattern. The authors interpret these counterintuitive findings as likely attributable to recall bias and differential healthcare-seeking behavior among more health-conscious, higher-educated families, and note borderline statistical significance and modest effect sizes.
