Agneta Hörnell
Umeå University, Dept. of Food and Nutrition, Faculty Member
Background: An increased intake of vegetable and fruit (VF) through school meals can contribute to the prevention of non-communicable diseases. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate what types of VF 4th grade pupils... more
Background: An increased intake of vegetable and fruit (VF) through school meals can contribute to the prevention of non-communicable diseases. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate what types of VF 4th grade pupils (10–11 years old) choose, how much they eat when they are given the opportunity to serve themselves from the daily vegetable buffet available at lunch, and whether this varies with socioeconomic background and gender. Design: A cross-sectional study design was used where pupils’ VF intake was measured during 5 days with a photographic method. In total, 196 pupils from nine public schools participated. Results: The results show that pupils on average ate less than one type of VF per day from the vegetable buffet. Girls, pupils with a higher socio-economic status (SES) and those with a more frequent VF intake at home, ate more types of VF per day from the vegetable buffet than their counterparts. The median intake of VF from the vegetable buffet was gener...
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The aim of the study was to describe and analyze different types of group work during Home and Consumer Studies lessons in four Swedish schools, located in two different municipalities. Observation ...
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Research Interests: Incidence Geometry, Environmental Health, Life Style, Diet, Medicine, and 15 moreHumans, Female, Body Composition, Cluster Analysis, Fruit, Incidence, Body Mass Index, Nutrient, Intervention Studies, Middle Aged, Longitudinal Studies, Food habits, Adult, Energy Intake, and Medical and Health Sciences
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To determine if there is any regional celiac disease (CD) risk variation in the Swedish childhood population. Prospective nationwide Swedish incidence register of CD in children 0-15 years of age, with the present analysis covering the... more
To determine if there is any regional celiac disease (CD) risk variation in the Swedish childhood population. Prospective nationwide Swedish incidence register of CD in children 0-15 years of age, with the present analysis covering the period from 1998 to 2003. ESPGHAN diagnostic criteria for CD were used. Regions were classified according to the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. The incidence rate for each region, gender, age group and year of diagnosis was calculated. A regional variation in CD risk was demonstrated. The childhood populations in 'West Sweden' and 'Småland and the islands', situated in the southern part of the country, had a significantly higher incidence rate compared to in 'North Middle Sweden' and 'Stockholm', situated in the central part. This regional variation was not explained by variations in risk by gender, age at diagnosis or year of diagnosis. The Swedish regional variation in CD risk supports multifactorial disease aetiology. Continued efforts are warranted to define factors, besides gluten exposure, that modulate CD risk.
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Objectives To explore how diagnosis of celiac disease (CD) in early adolescence affects overall food intake and healthiness of the diet in comparison with age-and sex matched controls and children with CD diagnosed in early childhood.... more
Objectives To explore how diagnosis of celiac disease (CD) in early adolescence affects overall food intake and healthiness of the diet in comparison with age-and sex matched controls and children with CD diagnosed in early childhood. Methods This is a ...
Research Interests: Medicine and Gluten Free
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Over half of the annual guests at Swedish hotels are supplied by the corporate sector. These guests are made up of individuals who travel for meetings, conferences, or presentations as a part of their job. Access to meals while travelling... more
Over half of the annual guests at Swedish hotels are supplied by the corporate sector. These guests are made up of individuals who travel for meetings, conferences, or presentations as a part of their job. Access to meals while travelling is essential and introduces added complexity to the business travellers’ everyday lives. These meals, and the pattern in which they are consumed, are part of the individual traveller’s personal and group identities. Therefore, the aim of this article is to study if business travellers deviate from their habitual meal patterns and if so - what changes they make. To further the understanding of this group’s meal patterns, a questionnaire was created and distributed. It was answered by 538 self-identified business travellers. These business travellers were made up of three groups – solo travellers, group travellers, and individuals who travelled both in groups as well as alone. Pearson’s chi-squared test was used to analyse differences in actions related to the meal pattern between groups. The analysis showed that changes in the meal pattern did occur in some instances. However, the majority of the business travellers adhered to their habitual meal pattern while adjusting their behaviour depending on the time of day. Managers of catering suppliers gaining insight into the meal habits of business travellers could help to ease an otherwise stressful situation by supplying meals, as a context, that fit with the business travellers’ habitual patterns and meal contexts.
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Research Interests: Epidemiology, Family, Environmental Health, Diet, Clinical Nutrition, and 15 moreHumans, Female, Disease, Data Collection, Health Status, Family Health, Food habits, Adult, Health Problems, Limit Analysis, Cross sectional Study, K means Clustering, Cross Sectional Studies, Energy Intake, and Health Outcome
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The Swedish National Agency for Education state that implementation of education should involve possibilities for pupils to work interdisciplinary and experience knowledge in different ways. The ai ...
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<p>Study design–procedure in each country.</p
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Research Interests: Demography, Health Care, Environmental Health, Diet, Clinical Nutrition, and 15 moreHumans, Ice Cream, Female, Data Collection, Food Frequency Questionnaire, Fruit, Eating, Fruit and vegetables, Food intake, Food habits, Adult, K means Clustering, Energy Intake, Confidence Interval, and Dietary intake
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Women with celiac disease are often described as being exposed to negative emotions and experiences related to the treatment of celiac disease, the gluten-free diet. To explore the daily consequences of diagnosis and their daily... more
Women with celiac disease are often described as being exposed to negative emotions and experiences related to the treatment of celiac disease, the gluten-free diet. To explore the daily consequences of diagnosis and their daily experiences of living with celiac disease, interviews were conducted with seven Swedish young women who had been diagnosed with celiac disease by screening in early adolescence. The semi-structured interview transcripts were content analysed using a gender perspective. The analysis showed that these young women`s daily experiences were coloured by the conjunction of their dietary treatment, their social relationships, and social norms. This means that recurrent food situations often clash with the normative constructions of femininity and social norms of eating with an adverse effect on dietary compliance.
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Research Interests: Mathematics and PLoS one
<p>Serving left, leftovers right.</p
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New food products and what they symbolise for students and teachers in the discipline of 'Food and Nutrition'
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Research Interests: Engineering, Child Development, Anthropometry, Iron Deficiency, Growth, and 15 moreHumans, Female, Anemia, Iron, Hemoglobin, Ferritin, Longitudinal Studies, Iron status, Health surveys, Iron Deficiency Anemia, Cross Sectional Studies, Hemoglobins, Cohort Studies, Child preschool, and Erythrocyte indices
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BackgroundFood habits, nutrient needs and intakes differ between males and females, although few nutritional studies on patients with coeliac disease (CD) have reported results stratified by gender.ObjectivesTo compare energy and nutrient... more
BackgroundFood habits, nutrient needs and intakes differ between males and females, although few nutritional studies on patients with coeliac disease (CD) have reported results stratified by gender.ObjectivesTo compare energy and nutrient intakes among 13‐year olds diagnosed with CD in early childhood with those of a non‐coeliac (NC) age‐ and gender‐matched control group, and also with estimated average requirements (EAR).MethodsA case–control study was conducted in Sweden 2006–2007 within the coeliac screening study ETICS (Exploring The Iceberg of Coeliacs in Sweden). Dietary intake was assessed among 37 adolescents (23 girls) diagnosed with CD at median age 1.7 years (CD group) and 805 (430 girls) NC controls (NC group) using a food‐frequency questionnaire covering 4 weeks. Reported energy intake was validated by comparison with the calculated physical activity level (PAL).ResultsRegardless of CD status, most adolescents reported an intake above EAR for most nutrients. However, both groups had a low intake of vitamin C, with 13% in the CD‐group and 25% in the NC‐group below EAR, and 21% of boys in the CD‐group below EAR for thiamine. The intake of fatty acids was unbalanced, with a high intake of saturated and a low intake of unsaturated fats. Girls and boys in the CD‐group had an overall lower nutrient density in reported food intake compared to girls and boys in the NC‐group.ConclusionsNutrient intake of adolescent girls and boys with CD was mostly comparable to intakes of NC controls. Dietitians should take the opportunity to reinforce a generally healthy diet when providing information about the gluten‐free diet.
Research Interests: Nutrition and Dietetics, Adolescent, Medicine, Micronutrients, Humans, and 15 moreChild, Celiac Disease, Female, Male, Infant, Nutrient, Food habits, Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Body Weight, Coeliac Disease, Energy Intake, Case Control Studies, Nutritional Requirements of Freshwater Fish, Child preschool, and Nutrition assessment
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Research Interests: Demography, Epidemiology, Nutrition, Public Health, Medicine, and 15 moreBreastfeeding, Prospective studies, Population, Humans, Female, Infant, Newborn Infant, Exclusive Breastfeeding, Developed Countries, Adult, Public health systems and services research, Longitudinal Study, Longitudinal data, Breast feeding, and Current Status Data
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Purpose Pupils’ perspective should be better taken into account when developing nutrition education at school. The purpose of this paper is to explore Nordic children’s perspectives on the healthiness of meals in the context of school... more
Purpose Pupils’ perspective should be better taken into account when developing nutrition education at school. The purpose of this paper is to explore Nordic children’s perspectives on the healthiness of meals in the context of school lunches. Design/methodology/approach In total, 78 focus group discussions were conducted with 10-11-year-old girls and boys (n=457) from schools in Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, which were participating in the Nordic school meal project ProMeal during the school year 2013-2014. A flexible discussion guide and stimulus material in the form of 14 photographs displaying different school lunch contexts were used. The discussions were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings These Nordic children seem to share the adult-set aim of healthy eating in the school context as a socio-cultural norm. Although healthy eating was constructed as a rational, normative and acceptable way to eat at school, unhealthy eating was emphasized as negotiably acceptable when eaten occasionally and under certain circumstances (e.g. at special occasions). Unhealthy eating also comprised emotionally laden descriptions such as enjoyment and disgust. Practical implications Children’s conceptualizations of healthy eating are connected to nutritional, socio-cultural, emotional and normative dimensions, which should be reflected also when developing nutrition education in school. Originality/value The need for research exploring children’s experiences of, and understandings about, school lunch motivated this unique multicenter study with a large number of participating children. In the focus groups a child-oriented, photo-elicitation method was used.
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Research Interests: Geography, Public Health Nutrition, Environmental Health, Cameroon, Adolescent, and 15 moreMedicine, Energy Metabolism, Humans, Child, Female, Male, Exercise, Nutritional Status, Body Mass Index, Plant Nutritive Value, Nutrient, Cross Sectional Studies, Energy Intake, Nutritive Value, and Medical and Health Sciences
Research Interests: Demography, Health Promotion, Poverty, Prejudice, Bangladesh, and 15 moreMedicine, Prospective studies, Humans, Child, Female, Male, Infant, Nutritional Status, Longitudinal Studies, Longitudinal Study, Body Height, Cohort Studies, Child preschool, Medical and Health Sciences, and Population surveillance
This study aimed to describe Discourses on meat in the school subject Home and Consumer Studies in five different northern Swedish schools. Fifty-nine students and five teachers from five different schools were recorded and in some cases... more
This study aimed to describe Discourses on meat in the school subject Home and Consumer Studies in five different northern Swedish schools. Fifty-nine students and five teachers from five different schools were recorded and in some cases video-taped during lessons. Results indicate that meat was seen as central to nutritional health, sensory experience, culture and social relationships. This positive view was challenged by an alternative Discourse where meat was threatening to health, sensory experience and psychological comfort, but this was not strong enough to affect centrality. Even when participants sought to promote the health advantages of reducing meat consumption, the dominant centrality Discourse was strengthened. This implies that the possible tension between physical and psychosocial/emotional health can make the benefits of a reduction difficult both to convey and accept. A form of critical food literacy may help teachers deconstruct the arbitrary power of the centrality Discourse, but it may also strengthen meat-eater identities because the social norms that guide food choice become salient. A redesign of Discourses might facilitate a reduction in meat consumption, but such a paradigm shift is dependent on the development of society as a whole, and can only be briefly touched upon within the limited time frames and resources of Home and Consumer Studies.
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Research Interests: Pediatrics, Infant Toddler Care, Medicine, Breastfeeding, Humans, and 15 moreFemale, Male, Infant, Infant feeding, Newborn Infant, Longitudinal Studies, Maternal Age, Breast feeding, Pacifier, Proportional Hazards Models, Prospective Study, Life tables, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Infant Care, and Medical and Health Sciences
Research Interests: Pediatrics, Medicine, Sweden, Breastfeeding, Population, and 13 moreHumans, Female, Regression Analysis, Infant, Longitudinal Studies, Adult, Breast feeding, Maternal Behavior, Infant Formula, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Infant food, Medical and Health Sciences, and Infant nutritional physiological phenomena
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Objective: This study aimed to describe Discourses on vegetarian food in the Swedish school subject Home and Consumer Studies. Design: The study involved the observation of naturally occurring classroom talk, with audio recording and in... more
Objective: This study aimed to describe Discourses on vegetarian food in the Swedish school subject Home and Consumer Studies. Design: The study involved the observation of naturally occurring classroom talk, with audio recording and in some cases video-taping. Setting: The study was conducted during Home and Consumer Studies lessons in five different northern Swedish schools. Method: Fifty-nine students and five teachers were observed, recorded and in some cases video-taped. The resulting data were analysed with a focus on big ‘D’ Discourses. Results: Results indicated that gendered Discourses of absence, deviance and unattainability restricted some students’ access to vegetarian food. The absence of meat was constructed as simultaneously healthy and unhealthy, a lack of cultural familiarity with vegetarian cooking made finding recipes difficult and students perceived the loss of taste as very negative. The vegetarian was seen as deviant, with vegetarianism being conceptually equated with sickness. Access to meat-free food required a commitment to a vegetarian lifestyle, and this was seen as a sacrifice and as too much work, not only for the individual but also for others. Conclusion: To counteract the restricted access to vegetarian food, Home and Consumer Studies teachers can redesign activities in the subject with the help of critical food literacy. For example, cooking could focus on popular plant-based dishes instead of ‘empty’ vegetarian themes, all students could be allowed to share vegetarian dishes instead of reserving them for vegetarians, the possibly strict rules of vegetarianism could be relaxed for those who do not wish to commit to them and vegetarian food could be deliberately connected to strength and masculinity. However, this presupposes sufficient economic resources and ample food storage space.
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Research Interests: Pediatrics, Nonparametric Statistics, Evolution, Medicine, Breastfeeding, and 15 moreHabituation, Humans, Female, Male, Infant, Chewing, Longitudinal Studies, Longitudinal Study, Breast feeding, Chi Square Distribution, Life tables, Infant Formula, Infant food, Paediatrics and reproductive medicine, and Infant nutritional physiological phenomena
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Artikeln ar en presentation av natverket "Dietitians Improving the Education and Training Standards" (DIETS). DIETS ar ett tematiskt natverk som syftar till att genom kosten forbattra folkhalsan i ...