Impacts of household factors on unhealthy dietary habits of preschool children / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To understand the current situation and impacts of household factors on of unhealthy dietary habits among preschool children, and to provide reference for preventing the occurrence of unhealthy dietary habits of preschool children.@*Methods@#By using stratified random cluster sampling method, the study selected 1 070 children aged 3-6 years in 7 kindergartens in Urumqi. Household general information , children’s dietary behavior and parenting environment was collected through parent questionnaire survey.@*Results@#The prevalence rate of unhealthy dietary habits among preschool children was 32.71%. Multifactor Logistic regression analysis showed that the unhealthy dietary habits of preschool children were negatively correlated to the following factors, including age of children [β=-0.32, 95%CI=(0.62,0.86)] , gender[β=-0.33,95%CI=(0.53,0.97)], educational level of mothers [β=0.94, 95%CI=(1.79,3.68)] , type of fanmily [β=0.64, 95%CI=(1.414,2.522)] and the scores of social adaptation/selfcare and environmental atmosphere in the family nurturing environment [β=-0.07, 95%CI=(0.90,0.97); β=-0.21, 95%CI=(0.76,0.87)].@*Conclusion@#The cultivation of the dietary habits should pay more attention on younger children and boys, and the enhancement of health education on the children’s eating behaviors among mothers with lower education background and the primary child caregivers in the stem family. Family nurturing environment should be actively improved, in order to prevent the occurrence of children’s unhealthy dietary habits.