Association between mothers' provision of vegetables and homemade meal strategies under time constraints in Japan.

Background: Maternal time constraints lead to a lack of vegetable provision to children. Mothers use homemade meal strategies under time constraints; however, these strategies have not been well investigated.

Aim: This study aimed to classify the homemade meal strategies used by mothers under time constraints and to examine their association with the provision of vegetable dishes.

Methods: We conducted an online cross-sectional survey of 400 mothers of preschool children in Japan. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to classify homemade meal strategies. The Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to compare the subscale scores by the demographic characteristics and provision of vegetable dishes, and logistic regression was used to predict the provision of vegetable dishes based on the subscales and adjusted for demographic characteristics.

Results: A 13-item scale comprising three subscales ("planning meals and shopping ahead," "use of convenience foods," and "batch cooking") was developed. Full-time employed mothers had higher scores for "use of convenience foods" and "batch cooking" than did unemployed mothers. "Batch cooking" was positively related to the provision of vegetable dishes more than seven times a week after adjusting for maternal demographic characteristics, whereas "use of convenience foods" was negatively related. "Planning meals and shopping ahead" was not associated with the provision of vegetable dishes.

Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that batch cooking is a recommended strategy under time constraints and that education on nutritional considerations when using convenience foods is required.