Background: Adolescence is a period of life when dietary patterns and nutrient intakes may greatly influence adult fatness. This study assesses the tracking of energy and nutrient intakes of Ho Chi Minh City adolescents over 5 years. It explores the possible relationships between energy and the percentage of energy from macronutrients with BMI.
Methods: Height, weight, time spent on physical activity, screen time and dietary intakes were collected annually between 2004 and 2009 among 752 junior high school students with a mean age of 11·87 years at baseline. The tracking was investigated using correlation coefficients and weighted kappa statistics (k) for repeated measurements. Mixed effect models were used to investigate the association between energy intakes and percentage energy from macronutrients with BMI.
Results: There were increases in the mean BMI annually, but greater in boys than in girls. Correlation coefficients (0·2 < r < 0·4) between participants' intakes at baseline and 5-year follow-up suggest moderate tracking. Extended kappa values were lowest for energy from carbohydrate (CHO) in both girls and boys (k = 0·18 & 0·24, respectively), and highest for protein in girls (k = 0·47) and fat in boys (k = 0·48). The multilevel models showed the following variables significantly correlated with BMI: CHO, fat, percentage of energy from CHO, fat, time spent for moderate to vigorous physical activity, screen time, age and sex.
Conclusions: The poor to fair tracking observed in this cohort suggests that individual dietary patterns exhibited in the first year are unlikely to predict energy and nutrient intakes in the fifth year.
Keywords: Adolescents; BMI; Energy; Macronutrient intakes.