[Food promotion and food preferences in Chilean school age children from different socioeconomic levels]. / Promoción de alimentos y preferencias alimentarias en escolares chilenos de diferente nivel socioeconómico.

UNLABELLED: To determine the attitude towards marketing of food and beverages a sample of 1,048 school children ages 8 to 13 from three cities of Chile (north, center and south of the country) were interviewed. The instrument applied was a validated questionnaire used in previous studies. A descriptive analysis of the variables was performed and differences were determined by region, socioeconomic level (SEL) and gender using Chi2 test. Differences per SEL were higher in Santiago. A greater proportion of school children of medium-low SEL watched more than 2 hours of TV during weekdays and weekends (p < 0.001). The proportion of children that liked food and beverage commercials was greater in medium-low SEL in Santiago (66%) (p < 0.001), as opposed to 26 to 35% in the medium high SEL. A high percentage indicated that they liked promotional campaigns of foods at supermarkets, on the streets, shopping centers and on the Internet. The preferred commercials were those for beverages, chocolates, ice-creams and cereals. Most common foods taken from home to school were cookies, fruits and yogurt. Most of the children had money available to buy food and the products more frequently preferred were cookies, sweets, French fries, beverages with sugar, chocolates, ice-creams and hot-dogs. CONCLUSION: marketing of food and beverages is recognized and remembered by school age children, influencing what they buy and consume regularly at school.

[Motivation and barriers in the consumption of five daily servings of fruit and vegetables by mothers of school age children and primary school teachers]. / Motivaciones y barreras para consumir 5 porciones de frutas y verduras al día en madres de escolares y profesores de enseñanza básica.

As a baseline for the promotion of health and the design of educational interventions, the benefits, barriers and stages of change related to the consumption of five daily servings of fruit and vegetables were studied in 463 mothers of school age children from different socioeconomic levels (SEL) and 412 primary school teachers in 3 cities in Chile. These groups were selected because of their influence over children's eating habits. For the evaluation of stages changes, a questionnaire designed by the American Institute for Cancer Research was adapted and applied. The questionnaire was answered voluntarily by the participants. 58% of the mothers and 60% of the teachers ate 1-2 servings of fruit and vegetables daily; 29.4 and 32.3% ate 3-4 servings and only 10 and 4% respectively ate 5 servings. Benefits reported from fruit and vegetable consumption in both groups were pleasure, wellness, a sense of well being and weight management. Barriers mentioned were forgetfulness, time constraints, nonsatisfaction of appetite and lack of motivation. The price of fruit and vegetables was considered high by 15.1% of mothers of medium high SEL and by 26.4% of medium low SEL (p < 0.002). Among teachers, 25.4% of men and 11.7% of women also considered price as a barrier (p < 0.002). Such results show that both mothers and teachers need specific interventions to improve their own motivation for eating more fruit and vegetables and to thus support this healthy eating habit in children.