Evidence mapPaperPMID 41298280Full record

ArticleAnnals of medicine2025

Preschool children's eating behaviors and caregivers' feeding practices in relation to children's weight in China: a network analysis.

Haiyue Zhang, Zhe Yang, Hao Zhang, Jing Yuan, Xianjun Yang, Ying Liang, Zhijun Tan, Yue Wang, Wei Zhang, Yuhai Zhang and 2 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Annals of medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors.

Haiyue ZhangDepartment of Health Statistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Hazard Assessment and Control in Special Operational Environment, School of Public Health, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
Zhe YangDepartment of Health Statistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Hazard Assessment and Control in Special Operational Environment, School of Public Health, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
Hao ZhangTransfusion Medicine Department, PLA 985th Hospital, Taiyuan, China.
Jing YuanDepartment of Medical Information, PLA 960th Hospital, Jinan, China.
Xianjun YangNo. 945 Hospital of Joint Logistics Support Force of PLA, China.
Ying LiangDepartment of Health Statistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Hazard Assessment and Control in Special Operational Environment, School of Public Health, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
Zhijun TanDepartment of Health Statistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Hazard Assessment and Control in Special Operational Environment, School of Public Health, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
Yue WangDepartment of Health Statistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Hazard Assessment and Control in Special Operational Environment, School of Public Health, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
Wei ZhangDepartment of Health Statistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Hazard Assessment and Control in Special Operational Environment, School of Public Health, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
Yuhai ZhangDepartment of Health Statistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Hazard Assessment and Control in Special Operational Environment, School of Public Health, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.
Xun JiangDepartment of Pediatrics, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
Lei ShangDepartment of Health Statistics, Ministry of Education Key Lab of Hazard Assessment and Control in Special Operational Environment, School of Public Health, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveThis study aimed to characterize the interactions between preschool children's eating behaviors and their caregivers' feeding practices, and to compare these patterns across underweight, normal weight, and overweight/obesity groups using a network model. MATERIALS AND

methodsA cross-sectional survey (January-July 2021) included 3-6-year-old preschool children and their primary caregivers from seven cities in Shaanxi Province, China. Children's eating behaviors and caregivers' feeding practices were measured using the Chinese Preschoolers' Eating Behavior Scale and the Chinese Preschoolers' Caregivers' Feeding Behavior Scale. Network centrality indices identified core and bridge behaviors, with stability assessed via case-dropping bootstrapping.

resultsThe network had 14 nodes, 82 non-zero edges (90.11% of all possible edges), and all networks showed good stability (correlation stability coefficient > 0.5). Among subgroups, the overweight/obese group had the highest mean edge weight (0.048), while the underweight group had the lowest non-zero edge proportion (45.05%). Across all samples, the strongest edge was between Feeding Responsibility and Content-Restricted Feeding (0.47), and the strongest cross-domain link was Emotional Eating-Weight Concerns (0.22), both stably confirmed by bootstrap. Feeding Responsibility had the highest strength (1.74) across groups, and Weight Concerns had the highest overall bridge strength (0.58), identifying it as a key connector. Edge weight distribution differed significantly between normal-weight and overweight/obese groups (

conclusionsNetwork analysis identified Feeding Responsibility as core behavior and Weight Concerns as a critical cross-domain bridge, highlighting caregivers' central role. These findings inform targeted interventions and nutritional strategies.

Indexed as

CaregiversFeeding BehaviorPediatric ObesityBody WeightChildChild, PreschoolChinaCross-Sectional StudiesFemaleHumansMaleSurveys and QuestionnairesThinnessEating behaviorsfeeding practicesnetwork analysispreschool children

Identifiers

PMID41298280
PMCPMC12667339

What Socratic holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.