Maternal Nutrition Knowledge And Childrens Diet Quality And Nutrient Intakes PDF Download

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences between nutritional knowledge of mothers of preschoolers and the growth status and dietary intake of preschoolers who attend the Child Development Center at Kent State University for which two hypotheses were stated. The independent variable of this study was knowledge of the mother and the dependent variables was the growth status of the child measured by plotting the child's BMI-for-age and the dietary intake of the child which was assessed by taking a 24-hour food log and by evaluating macronutrient (energy, carbohydrate, protein, total fat, saturated fat) intake of the child. The data was collected by a paper-pen survey. Mothers were asked to fill the first four sections of the survey at the CDC and were given the 24-hour-food log to be filled in at home. Total 29 mothers participated in the survey from which 13 mothers turned in the food log of the child. One-way analysis of variance was used in SPSS version 24.0 to analyze the quantitative data and themes and patterns were formed to analyze the qualitative data. The results indicated that there was no significance found (p>0.05). The overall education level of the mothers was observed to be high with the majority of them having a Masters or a Ph.D. degree, but their nutrition knowledge in general was found to be extremely low. While the current study provided beneficial insights into mother's nutrition knowledge, the results indicated an overall lack of impact of mother's nutrition knowledge on the growth status and dietary intake of the child (p>0.05). Despite previous research supporting the influence of mother's nutrition knowledge on a child's development and dietary intake, this study lacked many positive outcomes previously obtained, indicating that additional research is necessary to assess the impact of mother's nutrition knowledge on growth status and dietary intake of the child.