(P14-039-23) U.S. Adolescent Diets: Food Group Consumption Patterns and Dietary Diversity From a Decade of Nationally Representative Data

Objectives: Although the importance of adolescent nutrition has gained attention in the global nutrition community, there is a gap in research focused on adolescent dietary diversity and food group consumption. Our objective was to characterize population-level food group consumption patterns and quantify the extent of dietary diversity among U.S. adolescents using a large nationally representative sample of adolescents aged 10-19 years.

Methods: We used 24-hour recall data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2007-2018 to construct the 10 food groups comprising the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) indicator and estimated the prevalence of intake of each food group. A composite metric (adolescent dietary diversity score) was derived for each adolescent where one point was awarded per food group consumed. Both population scores and the distribution of individual scores were estimated. Differences in proportions of food groups consumed across sociodemographic categories were tested using Rao-Scott chi-square test and pairwise comparisons were expressed as population prevalence differences and prevalence ratios.

Results: From our eligible sample of 10310 adolescents, 9203 had at least one day of dietary recall. Food group consumption patterns were very similar across two days of dietary recall but varied significantly by sex, race/ethnicity, and income status. The food groups with the highest prevalence of consumption on a given day were grains, roots, and tubers (~99%), milk products (~92%), and meat, poultry, and fish (~85%), while less than 15% of adolescents consumed other micronutrient-dense foods including vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables and dark green vegetables. Mean adolescent dietary diversity score was 4.69, with modest variation across strata.

Conclusions: On average, U.S. youth consumed fewer than 5 food groups on a given day. The lack of dietary variety and relatively infrequent consumption of several micronutrient-rich plant-based foods could pose a risk for adolescents’ ability to achieve micronutrient adequacy in the U.S.

Funding Sources: No external funding was received for this research.