Abstract P206: Family Food Study: Findings From a Mixed Methods Pilot Study Examining Diet Among Chinese American Families in New York City
Authors: Madison N LeCroy, Surong Li, Isabel Lu, Celine Chan, Cindy Liu, Lisa Pham, Perla Chebli, Stella S Yi
Journal: Circulation (2024)

Introduction: Asian American youth experience a disproportionately high burden of diet-related diseases including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Family support and co-participation are essential to maintaining a healthy diet during childhood/adolescence and may be particularly important for Asian American youth given the cultural emphasis on family. However, no studies, to our knowledge, have examined how the diets of Asian American youth correlate with those of their families. Objective: To determine the correlation in diets of Chinese American families and understand the mechanisms through which families influence youth's diets. Methods: We recruited 10 Chinese American families from New York City to participate in the Family Food study. Between June and July of 2023, we administered phone-based surveys to 1 parent and 2 children aged 10-17 years within each family. One child per family conducted a follow-up, phone-based interview on the social and environmental determinants of diet. Dietary intake was measured using the validated and culturally adapted 26-item Dietary Screener Questionnaire. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated from linear mixed models with age and sex as fixed effects, family as a random effect, and either 1) predicted fruit and vegetable intake or 2) frequency of intake of each food/beverage group as the outcome. Rapid qualitative analysis was used to identify key themes from the youth interviews. Results: On average, youth were 13 years old, 55% were male, and 15% were born in China. All parents were female and born in China, and 30% of households were SNAP recipients. Predicted mean intake of fruits and vegetables was 2.8 (SD: 0.9) cups/day, and correlation in intake among family members was slight (ICC=0.10). Correlations in frequency of intake of food/beverage groups among family members ranged from 0.01 to 0.46 (i.e., virtually no similarity to fair), with the strongest correlations for 100% fruit juice (0.46), milk (0.35), cheese (0.35), and fried potatoes (0.35). Our qualitative analysis indicated that convenience and time were the most common determinants of dietary choices, particularly among high schoolers. Most junk foods youth consumed were American, while dinner was generally Chinese cuisine prepared by their mother or grandmother. This echoed quantitative findings that families ate dinner together most days (6.3 days/week), that 90% of mothers were the main person responsible for food preparation, and that 40% of mothers did not like or know how to prepare American foods. Conclusions: Among Chinese American families, intake of dairy items, high-sugar, and high-fat items tended to be the most strongly correlated. Future research should aim to replicate this work in a larger sample size and to better understand how convenience, time, and family meals shape diet- and health-related decisions.