Mediterranean Diet Adherence among Preschoolers and its Association with Parents' Beliefs, Attitudes, and Practices.

Mediterranean Diet Adherence among Preschoolers and its Association with Parents' Beliefs, Attitudes, and Practices.
Ecol Food Nutr. 2020 Oct 13;:1-19
Authors: Sanlier N, Ulusoy HG, Kocabaş S, Çelik B, Göbel P, Yilmaz S
Abstract
The effect of parents on nutritional habits in preschool children is undeniable. It is known that parental control in child nutrition can affect the child's eating habits, and bodyweight. Mediterranean Diet (MD) adherence of children (KIDMED), parents' beliefs, attitudes and practices (Preschool Feeding Questionnaire-PFQ2) were investigated. The questionnaire prepared was applied by researchers face-to-face to 1413 families who agreed to participate voluntarily in the research with preschool children. Parental beliefs, attitudes, and practices regarding child nutrition status of parents were evaluated using 39-item PFQ2 and their child's eating habits using the 16-item KIDMED index. Children's KIDMED scores were found optimal in 34.1%, average in 57.0%, very low in 8.9%. The KIDMED scores of children whose parents are together (6.6 ± 2.1) were found to be significantly higher than children whose parents are separated (4.9 ± 2.2) (p <.001). A correlation was found between the KIDMED scores of the children, the parental control (r = 0.156, p <.001), maternal restriction (r = 0.104, p <.001), and structured feeding (r = 0.162, p <.001). Unfortunately, the adherence of most preschool ch...

Source: Ecology of Food and Nutrition - October 15, 2020 Category: Nutrition Tags: Ecol Food Nutr Source Type: research