Do mindful eating intervention programs improve mindful eating and nutritional status in children?

The study aimed to evaluate the changes in mindful eating scores, anthropometric measurements, and dietary adequacy in children after the Mindful Eating Intervention Program for Children and Parents (MEIP-CP).

This study was conducted as a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test pattern. The research sample comprised 64 children (48.4% boys, 51.6% girls) aged 8-11 years and their parents. The MEIP-CP includes six sessions (preventing mindless eating, exploring the senses, recognizing hunger and fullness signals, expressing emotions, sowing the seeds of awareness, and cultural meal invitation) of 45-60 min/per week. Data was obtained using questionnaire with face-to-face interviews at the pre-test (baseline), post-test (week 6 and week 12). The survey form included the socio-demographics information, the Mindful Eating Questionnaire for Children (MEQ-C), the Emotional Eating Scale for Children and Adolescents (EES-C), anthropometric measurements, and a 24-hour dietary recall. The nutrient adequacy ratio (NAR) and mean adequacy ratio (MAR) were used to evaluate children's diets.

The Mindless eating scores of children decreased, and Awareness scores increased at post-test evaluation (p < 0.05). No significant difference was found in the anthropometric measurements of both boys and girls during the study (p > 0.05). Following the MEIP-CP, there was a trend toward decreased EES-C subscales scores. The rate of those who were in the "good" group (> 80%) in terms of MAR rating baseline (46.9%) increased to 70.3% in the sixth week. While gender, the EES-C score, and Body Mass Index were associated with the Mindless eating score, age, the MAR rating, and the EES-C scores were associated with the Awareness score in regression models (p < 0.05).

The MEIP-CP may contribute to increasing mindful eating and dietary adequacy in addition to reducing emotional state-related behaviours in children.