Objectives
This study examined the association between the dietary behavior and weight status of preschool children and their mothers in Daejeon, Korea.
Methods: A total of 301 mother–preschool children (aged 3~6 years) dyads were included in this study. The dietary behavior of children and their mothers was assessed using the Nutrition Quotient (NQ) questionnaire for preschoolers and adults, respectively. The NQ questionnaires were completed by the mothers. The overweight/ obesity status of children and their mothers was determined using data on height and body weight reported by the mothers. Multiple logistic regression was performed to examine the relationship between the dietary behavior and weight status of children and their mothers.
Results: The mean NQ score was 58.9 ± 9.7 in children and 55.6 ± 9.2 in mothers. The NQ score was higher in boys than girls but did not vary by age. The prevalence of overweight/obesity was 27.5% in children and 46.5% in mothers. The physical activity level of mothers and their NQ scores were positively associated with the NQ scores of the children. After adjustment for covariates, the mothers in the highest tertile of NQ scores showed a lower odds ratio (OR) for the unhealthy dietary behavior of children (OR = 0.24, 95% CI = 0.11~0.53, P< 0.001) compared to those in the lowest tertile.
The obese mothers showed a higher OR for children’s overweight/obesity (OR = 3.38, 95% CI = 1.68~6.80, P = 0.001) compared to normal weight mothers.
Conclusions: The dietary behavior and weight status of young children and their mothers were closely linked. Nutrition education programs targeting mothers are necessary for improving maternal and child nutrition. Specifically, these programs need to be tailored to the socioeconomic characteristics or weight status of mothers.
This study examined the association between the dietary behavior and weight status of preschool children and their mothers in Daejeon, Korea.
A total of 301 mother-preschool children (aged 3~6 years) dyads were included in this study. The dietary behavior of children and their mothers was assessed using the Nutrition Quotient (NQ) questionnaire for preschoolers and adults, respectively. The NQ questionnaires were completed by the mothers. The overweight/ obesity status of children and their mothers was determined using data on height and body weight reported by the mothers. Multiple logistic regression was performed to examine the relationship between the dietary behavior and weight status of children and their mothers.
The mean NQ score was 58.9 ± 9.7 in children and 55.6 ± 9.2 in mothers. The NQ score was higher in boys than girls but did not vary by age. The prevalence of overweight/obesity was 27.5% in children and 46.5% in mothers. The physical activity level of mothers and their NQ scores were positively associated with the NQ scores of the children. After adjustment for covariates, the mothers in the highest tertile of NQ scores showed a lower odds ratio (OR) for the unhealthy dietary behavior of children (OR = 0.24, 95% CI = 0.11~0.53, P < 0.001) compared to those in the lowest tertile. The obese mothers showed a higher OR for children's overweight/obesity (OR = 3.38, 95% CI = 1.68~6.80, P = 0.001) compared to normal weight mothers.
The dietary behavior and weight status of young children and their mothers were closely linked. Nutrition education programs targeting mothers are necessary for improving maternal and child nutrition. Specifically, these programs need to be tailored to the socioeconomic characteristics or weight status of mothers.
Fig. 1
Prevalence of overweight/obesity in children by the characteristics of children (a) and their mothers (b) P-values were obtained from the chi-square test. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.
Table 1
Characteristics of the study subjects
Table 2
NQ scores of children and mothers by their characteristics
Table 3
Correlations among NQ scores of children and their mothers
Table 4
NQ scores of children by their mothers' characteristics
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT; Ministry of Science and ICT) (Grant No. NRF-2019R1F1A1059866).