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	Welcome   | My Account | E-mail Alerts | Access Rights | Sign In Vol. 9 No. 3, March 2000   Archives  •  Online Features Original Contribution  This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (159)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in this journal Family Dinner and Diet Quality Among Older Children and Adolescents Matthew W. Gillman, MD; Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman, MPH; A. Lindsay Frazier, MD; Helaine R. H. Rockett, MS, RD; Carlos A. Camargo, Jr, MD; Alison E. Field, ScD; Catherine S. Berkey, ScD; Graham A. Colditz, MD Arch Fam Med. 2000;9:235-240. Context  The proportion of children eating dinner with their families declines with age and has decreased over time. Few data exist concerning the nutritional effect of eating family dinner. Objective  To examine the associations between frequency of eating dinner with family and measures of diet quality. Design  Cross-sectional. Setting  A national convenience sample. Participants  There were 8677 girls and 7525 boys in the study, aged 9 to 14 years, who were children of the participants in the ongoing Nurses' Health Study II. Main Outcome Measures  We collected data from a self-administered mailed survey, including food and nutrient intakes from a validated semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Main outcome measures included servings per day of selected foods and food groups, daily intakes of selected macronutrients and micronutrients, and frequency of multivitamin use. Results  Approximately 17% of participants ate dinner with members of their family never or some days, 40% on most days, and 43% every day. More than half of the 9-year-olds ate family dinner every day, whereas only about one third of 14-year-olds did so. In age- and sex-adjusted logistic regression models, the odds ratios associated with a frequency of family dinner of most days compared with never or some days, or every day compared with most days, were as follows: for eating at least 5 servings per day of fruits and vegetables, 1.45 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.37-1.53); for eating any fried foods away from home, 0.67 (95% CI, 0.64-0.70); and for drinking any soda, 0.73 (95% CI, 0.66-0.80). Multiple linear regression showed that an increased frequency of family dinner was also associated with substantially higher intake of several nutrients, including fiber, calcium, folate, iron, vitamins B6, B12, C, and E; lower glycemic load; and lower intake of saturated and trans fat as a percentage of energy. We observed little or no effect on intakes of whole dairy products, red meat, or snack foods. Patterns were similar for boys and girls. Conclusions  Eating family dinner was associated with healthful dietary intake patterns, including more fruits and vegetables, less fried food and soda, less saturated and trans fat, lower glycemic load, more fiber and micronutrients from food, and no material differences in red meat or snack foods. From the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (Drs Gillman and Ms Rifas-Shiman); the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (Dr Frazier), the Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital (Dr Camargo), the Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's hospital Harvard Medical School (Drs Frazier, Camargo, Field, Berkey, and Colditz and Mss Rockett and Berkey), and the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass. RELATED ARTICLES Author's Comment Matthew W. Gillman Arch Fam Med. 2000;9(3):240. 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