Dietary diversity status and influencing factors among children aged 3-7 in China.

Objective: To investigate the dietary diversity status of preschool children aged 3-7 years in Wuxi City, analyze the factors influencing dietary diversity, and provide a scientific basis for developing effective intervention methods to improve dietary diversity. Methods: A stratified cluster random sampling method was used to select 3,727 preschool children from 18 kindergartens across Wuxi. A questionnaire was used to collect demographic data of the children and their parents, dietary habits, and family conditions. Results: The average dietary diversity score (DDS) was 5.07 ± 1.94, with 36.79% of children having low dietary diversity (DDS ≤ 4). Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that the following factors were associated with normal dietary diversity: family per capita monthly income of 1,000-2,000 RMB, children engaging in outdoor activities for less than 2 h daily or more than 2 h daily, an average daily sleep duration of 9-13 h, occasional good appetite, sometimes good appetite, often good appetite, always good appetite, and having a fixed dining seat. Conversely, factors associated with low dietary diversity included maternal BMI of 24-27.9 (OR = 0.725, 95% Conclusion: Over one-third of preschool children in Wuxi have low dietary diversity, which requires greater attention. Screen time was significantly associated with low dietary diversity, Maternal overweight/obesity was significantly associated with lower dietary diversity among children. Particular focus should be placed on children with prolonged screen time and maternal overweight/obesity to prevent diseases related to low dietary diversity. Targeted intervention strategies for Wuxi's preschool children were proposed from the perspectives of family, kindergarten and government, and stratified interventions were suggested for migrant children and children with maternal obesity.