Relationships between Energy Balance Knowledge and the Home Environment

Certain aspects of the home environment as well as individuals' knowledge of energy balance are believed to be important correlates of various dietary and physical activity behaviors, but no known studies have examined potential relationships between these correlates. This study evaluated cross-sectional associations between characteristics of the home environment and energy balance knowledge among 349 youth/parent pairs recruited from the Minneapolis/St Paul, MN, metropolitan area from September 2006 to June 2007. Linear regression models adjusted for student grade and highest level of parental education were used to compare data from home food, physical activity, and media inventories (parent-reported) with energy balance knowledge scores from youth and parent questionnaires. Paired energy balance knowledge (average of youth and parent knowledge scores) was associated with all home food availability variables. Paired knowledge was also significantly associated with a media equipment availability and accessibility summary score (β=-1.40, P=0.005), as well as an activity-to-media ratio score (β=0.72, P=0.003). Youth and/or parent knowledge alone was not significantly associated with most characteristics of the home environment, supporting the importance of developing intervention strategies that target the family as a whole.