Cooking skills in relation to diet quality in children: a cross-sectional analysis

Increasing childhood obesity rates and poor eating habits have led health professionals to explore strategies to improve children's dietary intake. One such strategy is the promotion of cooking skills. This study examined the cross-sectional association between children's cooking skills and diet quality, using data from the Guelph Family Health Study. Data from 81 children (mean age of 9.1 years; 74.1% White) from 68 families were included. Children self-reported their cooking skills using items from the Tool for Food Literacy Assessment in Children, and parents reported their children's dietary intake using the Automated Self-Administered 24-Hour Dietary Assessment Tool (ASA-24) from which diet quality was determined using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI-2020). Linear regression models with generalized estimating equations were used to explore associations between child cooking skills and HEI-2020 total and component scores, adjusted for child age and sex, household income, and intervention status. Mean child cooking skills score (out of a maximum of 4) was 3.08 ± 0.68, and mean HEI-2020 total score (out of a maximum of 100) was 60 ± 12.99. Child cooking skills score was not significantly associated with HEI-2020 total score (ß = -0.78, 95% CI (-4.88, 3.33 p = 0.71), but significantly associated with HEI-2020 Total Vegetables component score (ß = 0.47, 95% CI (0.05, 0.89, p = 0.03). These findings highlight the need for more research, especially longitudinal, to help determine the association between child cooking skills and their diet quality.