The family meal has been associated with numerous health and wellbeing benefits for both adults and children. However, the majority of the research in this area is correlational, unable to prove a causal relationship between family meals and health and wellbeing outcomes. The objectives of this systematic review were to determine the causal relationship between family meals and health and wellbeing and explore family members' perceptions of the family meal. A systematic search across five databases was undertaken to identify both intervention studies and qualitative studies investigating the family meal. Thirty-two articles were deemed eligible for inclusion in this review. Qualitative data were synthesised via the meta-aggregation approach; however, the quantitative data were too heterogeneous to perform meta-analysis. Only one intervention included in this review exclusively targeted the family meal, the remaining studies had other target strategies as part of their intervention (e.g. physical activity, snacking, sleep routines). Only two of the eight interventions reported a statistically significant difference between control and intervention groups for family meal frequency or quality, therefore we were unable to fully explore the causal relationship between family meals and health and wellbeing outcomes. The qualitative studies identified multiple barriers to the family meal, including scheduling conflicts, exhaustion and lack of time, and reported family connection and communication as the main perceived benefits of the family meal. There is a gap between the benefits and barriers to the family meal identified through qualitative research, and current intervention strategies, with few interventions exclusively targeting the family meal. Interventions that are informed by qualitative literature and exclusively target the family meal are needed to further investigate the causal relationship between family meals and potential health and wellbeing outcomes.

中文翻译：

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家庭可以从家庭餐中获得什么？混合论文系统评价

家庭聚餐与成人和儿童的许多健康和福祉有关。然而，该领域的大多数研究都是相关的，无法证明家庭膳食与健康和幸福结果之间的因果关系。本系统评价的目的是确定家庭膳食与健康和幸福之间的因果关系，并探讨家庭成员对家庭膳食的看法。对五个数据库进行了系统搜索，以确定干预研究和调查家庭聚餐的定性研究。三十二篇文章被认为符合纳入本综述的条件。定性数据是通过元聚合方法合成的；然而，定量数据过于异质，无法进行荟萃分析。本综述中仅包括一项干预措施专门针对家庭用餐，其余研究将其他目标策略作为干预措施的一部分（例如体育活动、零食、睡眠习惯）。八项干预措施中只有两项报告在家庭进餐频率或质量方面对照组和干预组之间存在统计学显着差异，因此我们无法充分探讨家庭进餐与健康和幸福结果之间的因果关系。定性研究确定了家庭聚餐的多重障碍，包括时间安排冲突、疲惫和缺乏时间，并将家庭联系和沟通报告为家庭聚餐的主要感知好处。通过定性研究确定的家庭聚餐的好处和障碍之间存在差距，和当前的干预策略，很少有专门针对家庭聚餐的干预措施。需要根据定性文献并专门针对家庭膳食进行干预，以进一步调查家庭膳食与潜在健康和福祉结果之间的因果关系。