Caregiver Perceptions of Child Diet Quality: What Influenced Their Judgment

Abstract

This study aimed at assessing the correctness of a caregiver’s perception of their child’s diet status and to determine the factors which may influence their judgment. 815 child-caregiver pairs were recruited from two primary schools. 3-day 24-h recall was used to evaluate children’s dietary intake, Chinese Children Dietary Index (CCDI) was used to evaluate the dietary quality. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to explore the factors that could influence the correctness of caregiver’s perception. In the current study, 371 (62.1%) children with “high diet quality” and 35 (16.1%) children with “poor diet quality” were correctly perceived by their caregivers. Children who were correctly perceived as having “poor diet quality” consumed less fruits and more snacks and beverages than those who were not correctly perceived (p < 0.05). Obese children were more likely to be correctly identified as having “poor diet quality” (OR = 3.532, p = 0.040), and less likely to be perceived as having “high diet quality”, even when they had a balanced diet (OR = 0.318, p = 0.020). Caregivers with a high level of education were more likely to correctly perceive children’s diet quality (OR = 3.532, p = 0.042). Caregivers in this study were shown to lack the ability to correctly identify their children’s diet quality, especially amongst children with a “poor diet quality”. Obesity, significantly low consumption of fruits or high consumption of snacks can raise caregivers’ awareness of “poor diet quality”.

Healthy eating perceptions of mothers and caregivers of children in South Africa

“…In Ethiopia, a study done by Berhane et al ( 2018 ) reported that caregivers were aware that consuming unhealthy foods affects health and contributes to the development of some diseases. Similarly, in China, according to the study done by Shao et al ( 2022 ), caregivers were aware that poor diets can lead to overweight and obesity, while in Bangladesh, a study done by Rahman et al ( 2016 ) reported that caregivers perceived that healthy foods do not taste as good as unhealthy foods. The Arabian study done by Ismail et al ( 2022 ) reported that caregivers indicated that foods that are low in fibre can cause health issues and can lead to diseases.…”

Healthy Life Habits in Caregivers of Children in Vulnerable Populations: A Cluster Analysis

“…Additionally, we examined whether the membership of a given group is associated with the participants' demographic characteristics, such as occupation, kinship, or the sex and age of the children. As there is evidence that the educational level, living area, and family type might influence children's HLH [11,25,42,45,[55][56][57][58][59][61][62][63][64], we expected caregivers with the most positive attitudes towards HLHs to live in rural communities, have a high level of education, and not be part of single-parent families. However, we did not expect that the sex or age of the children were related to the caregiver's membership in a given cluster [14,45,46,[57][58][59].…”

“…Similarly, children of highly educated parents consume milk, fruits, and vegetables more frequently, engage in more physical activity, and spend fewer hours in front of the TV screen [55,63]. This is associated with more educated caregivers being more likely to correctly perceive diet quality [64] and to favor habits, such as not having television in the children's room, that avoid excessive hours in front of screens [59].…”