THE COMPARISON OF TWO PROTOCOLS EXAMINING FOOD VARIETY OF YOUNG CHILDREN (2-8 YEARS) WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder, a neurodevelopmental disease that can cause social and behavioral difficulties, is commonly associated with repetitive behaviors. One such behavior is food selectivity. To assess food selectivity, the Bandini and Neūfood methods of determining food repertoire were compared. Data were analyzed for 74 subjects; average age was 5.28 ± 0.59 years, 57 were boys and 17 were girls. The sample was predominantly Caucasian (64.9%), and participants had an average BMI percentile of 65.04% ± 29.03%. Bandini's protocol had a mean score of 28.34 ± 8.34, while Neūfood had a mean score of 21.94 ± 6.97; the two methods' average scores were significantly different from one another [t(73) = 9.446, p=0.0001]. Both the Bandini and Neūfood methods were significantly correlated with Healthy Eating Index scores (r=0.466, p=0.0001 and r=0.339, p=0.004, respectively). Neither scoring method was associated with weight or BMI percentile. Higher Neūfood scores were significantly associated with a decrease in autism severity (r=-0.310, p=0.01), while Bandini's scores were not (r=-0.111, p=0.373). Neūfood scores were related to parents' perceptions of restrictiveness at a correlation that approached significance applying an adjusted p-value of 0.01 for multiple tests (r=-2.72, p=0.021). In contrast, Bandini's scores were not correlated with parents’ perceptions of restrictiveness (r=-0.207, p=0.082). The data suggests the two food repertoire protocols are indicative of food- and health-related outcomes.