Technical Report - Donegal Traveller's Project

All Ireland Traveller Health StudyOn weekdays, more Travellers regularly have breakfast than HBSC children. 72.7% of ROI and 83.7% ofNI Traveller 14-year-olds have breakfast every morning, compared with 68.8% of HBSC social class 5-612-14-year-olds. Self-report of fruit and vegetable consumption is lower in the HBSC sample than in theparent-reported AITHS. 44.0% of ROI Traveller 14-year-olds and 61.1% of NI Traveller 14-year-olds eat 4or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day, compared with HBSC 12 to14-year-olds in SC 5-6, only19.0% of whom report eating fruit more than once a day, and 16.3% of whom report eating vegetablesmore than once a day.At least daily consumption of sweets is reported in 32.1% of ROI Traveller 14-year-olds and 26.0% of NITraveller 14-year-olds, compared with 37.5% of HBSC 12 to 14-year-olds in SC 5-6. Consumption of ‘soft’drinks is similar between the groups; 27.9% of ROI Traveller 9-year-old and 21.8% of NI Traveller 14-yearoldsdrink sugary, fizzy drinks once or more a day, compared with 26.5% of HBSC 12 to14-year-olds inSC 5-6.There are differences in methodology in reported child health between studies. The by-proxy reportingof child’s health behaviour may over-estimate child’s behaviour when reported by parents (van Roy etal., 2010). Furthermore, Theunissen et al. (1998) state that by-proxy reporting may be over estimatedat child-parent level, but is valid at group level. As stated in footnotes through the text, these caveatsrelated to differing study methodology must be considered when evaluating the comparative datarelating to the Child Health sub study.204