Resemblance in dietary intakes between urban low‐income African American adolescents and their mothers and the predictors: the HEALTH‐KIDS study

Using comparable dietary data collected from 121 low‐income African American mother‐child pairs in Chicago, we examined the association between their diets and the predictors. Both the mothers and children were at high risk of obesity. Diet was assessed by the Harvard food frequency questionnaires, which included ≫150 items. The association was assessed using correlation coefficients, kappa, percentage of agreement, and logistic regression models. Overall, the association was weak as indicated by correlations and the other measures. None of the mother‐son correlations for interested nutrients and food groups were greater than 0.20. Mother‐daughter pairs had stronger correlations (0.26 for energy; 0.30 for fat (g)). The association was stronger in normal weight‐ than overweight or obese mothers. Logistic models showed that mother being a current smoker, giving child more pocket money, and allowing child to eat or purchase snacks without parental permission or presence predicted a higher probability of resemblance in undesirable eating patterns, such as high‐energy, high‐fat, and high‐snack intakes (p<0.05). In conclusion, mother‐child diet associations were generally weak, and varied considerably across groups and dietary intake variables in the target population. Maternal characteristics seem to affect the association.