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Accepted manuscript

Influence of lifestyle and eating behaviours on Mediterranean diet adherence in pre-schoolers from southern Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 December 2025

Gracia Cristina Villodres Open the ORCID record for Gracia Cristina Villodres [Opens in a new window] ,
Rosario Padial-Ruz ,
Juan José Pérez-Díaz  and
José Joaquín Muros Open the ORCID record for José Joaquín Muros [Opens in a new window]
Gracia Cristina Villodres
Affiliation:
Department of Didactics of Corporal Expression, Faculty of Education, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain.
Rosario Padial-Ruz
Affiliation:
Department of Didactics of Corporal Expression, Faculty of Education, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain.
Juan José Pérez-Díaz
Affiliation:
Department of Physical Education and Sports, Faculty of Sports Sciences, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain.
José Joaquín Muros*
Affiliation:
Department of Didactics of Corporal Expression, Faculty of Education, University of Granada, 18071, Granada, Spain.
*
*Correspondence author: José Joaquín Muros Molina, 18071, jjmuros@ugr.es, 958246350.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

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Objective:

The present study examined the association of body mass index (BMI), screen and sleep time, physical fitness and eating behaviour with Mediterranean diet (MD) adherence in a sample of pre-schoolers from Granada, Spain.

Design:

A cross-sectional, non-randomised design was employed. A multilinear regression model with backward elimination was used for analysis.

Setting:

Variables included age, BMI, screen time, hours of nightly sleep, physical fitness, food approach and food avoidance. The developed model met assumptions of multiple regression in terms of linearity, homoscedasticity, normality, independence and non-multicollinearity.

Participants:

Data were collected from 653 of the 2250 three-to-six-year-old children attending the 18 schools invited to take part in the present study.

Results:

Better sleep time and lower screen time and food avoidance were found to be predictive of MD adherence. These variables explained 15% of the variance in pre-schoolers MD adherence.

Conclusions:

The present study suggests that sleep and screen time and food avoidance are important components to consider when targeting improvements in MD adherence in pre-schoolers. Future research should explore the way in which parental health behaviours influence their children’s health habits in order to better understand outcomes.

Keywords

Quality diethealthy behaviourssedentary behaviourschildhood

Information

Type
Research Paper
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Accepted manuscript , pp. 1 - 20
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Nutrition Society