The purpose of this systematic review is to assess the associations among education, income and dietary pattern (DP) in children and adolescents from high, medium and low human development countries (HHDC, MHDC and LHDC, respectively). Observational studies that evaluated the association between family income or education with the DP are obtained through electronic database searches. Forty articles are selected for review. In HHDC, education is inversely associated with “unhealthy” DP and positively associated with “healthy” DP. In cross-sectional studies from HHDC, higher income is negatively associated with “unhealthy” DP. In MHDC, there is no association between the socioeconomic variables (SE) and the DPs, although, in some studies, the unhealthy diet is positively associated with SE. Only one study conducted in LHDC showed an inverse association between income/education with “unhealthy” DP and there is no association between the SE and “healthy” DP. In conclusion, children and adolescents living in HHDC with high parental education tend to have a healthier diet. In MHDC, although an unhealthy diet is found among the high-income and educated population, the associations are not clear. Additional research is needed to clarify the associations between income and education with “unhealthy” and “healthy” DPs in MHDC and LHDC.

The aim of this study was to assess the validity of the third version of the Previous Day Food Questionnaire (PDFQ-3) for schoolchildren. PDFQ-3 is a structured instrument with 6 meals and 21 foods. The study included 164 students aged 6 to 11 years in a public school with a full-day school schedule in 2007. Validity was assessed by comparing food items selected on the questionnaire and direct observations of foods eaten in three school meals on the previous day (mid-morning snack, lunch, and mid-afternoon snack). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the discordance between answers from the questionnaire versus those from observations. Results indicated high sensitivity and specificity for the majority of the food items. Mean values for sensitivity and specificity were 70.5% and 87.1%, respectively, for 12 food items in three combined school meals. Schoolchildren aged 6 to 8 years showed higher discordance between PDFQ-3 and observations, compared to 9-to-11-year-olds. Based on the findings, the PDFQ-3 can generate valid data for the evaluation of previous day food consumption in groups of schoolchildren.