Introduction:

promoting healthy eating habits among childhood is one of the key aspects to improve medium and long-term health outcomes.

Objectives:

the main aims are to improve eating habits, promote the Mediterranean diet (MD) and prevent and/or reverse overweight and obesity in children from 3 to 12 years old.

Methods:

the program has a one-year follow-up and includes three to five visits with registered dietitians, one telephone control and one practical workshop. Anthropometric, body composition and eating habits data are collected, and nutritional education is carried out. A total sample of 1,000 children will be included.

Results:

until now, 622 participants have been included (51.6 % boys; median age 8.5 years). At the beginning, 32.2 % of participants were overweight or obese and 38.9 % had an adequate MD. Although no differences were found in the assessment of the Kidmed questionnaire regarding sex (p = 0.214) or body mass index (BMI) subgroups (p = 0.181), differences were found regarding age (p = 0.023) and BMI Z-score (p = 0.004), showing slightly lower values in those having and adequate MD.

At the moment, 362 participants have made the six-month visit, of which 61.6 % presented an adequate MD, with statistically significant differences compared to the baseline visit (p < 0.0001).

Conclusions:

preliminary results show the need for nutritional education in children and suggest that Programa Nutriplato(r) can be effective in improving eating habits.

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