Dietary knowledge and behaviour among schoolchildren in Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract

In 1989, 674 schoolchildren aged 12-14 years in nine elementary schools in a municipality in Copenhagen, Denmark, answered a questionnaire about their dietary habits and knowledge. The majority of the pupils had fruit (87%), vegetables (72%), rye bread (81%), and drank fat-reduced milk (73%) every day. A diet score (reliability = 0.58) was calculated on the basis of the intake of 8 food items relevant to current dietary recommendations. There were no age and sex differences as to dietary habits, but immigrant children had a lower diet score than native children. Dietary knowledge was measured by the ability to state correctly whether 11 different food items had a high content or not of fat, sugar or dietary fibres. Dietary knowledge was highest for questions about fat and sugar. A knowledge score measured the number of correct answers to all 33 questions (reliability = 0.90). Knowledge was highest among older children, native children, and children with the most healthy dietary habits. In the multivariate regression analysis, knowledge, health attitudes and ethnicity were the only significant predictors of dietary behaviour. It is concluded that both social and personal factors are important for dietary behaviour, and health promotion in children should include other methods than educational programmes.

Understanding choice of milk and bread for breakfast among Swedish children aged 11–15 years: an application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour

“…Associations between nutrition knowledge and dietary behaviour among adolescents have been reported occasionally (Osler & Hansen, 1993), but no clear relationships have been found in several studies (Freeman et al, 1993;Perron & Endres, 1985;Trexler & Sargent, 1993;Williams et al, 1993). One reason why young people may not act on their knowledge is that they do not believe that diet during childhood is of importance to health, even if they think they might wish to eat healthy food later in life (Story & Resnick, 1986).…”

Influences on Children's Dietary Behavior, and Innovative Attempts to Change It

“…Cross-sectional studies have shown relationships between knowledge and behavior [49], and it was once thought that enhancing a child's knowledge about a behavior would result in change (kind of a self-interested response to new information), but little support exists for this proposition [50]. We participated in a substantial number of evaluation studies to test the effects of interventions which incorporated what we had been learning about influences on children's dietary intake, and more recently obesity.…”

Correlates of fruit and vegetable intake among Norwegian schoolchildren: parental and self-reports

“…To increase fruit and vegetable intake, knowing what factors determine intake in specific target groups is essential 5 . Correlates of fruit and vegetable intake among children and adolescents have been studied in a number of settings, and statistically significant relationships have been found between fruit and vegetable intake and factors such as knowledge levels 6,7 , outcome expectations 6,8 -10 , preferences 6,10 -14 , self-efficacy 6,9,10,12,15 , family and peer influences 6,14,16 -18 , availability and/or accessibility 6,9,19 -22 , as well as demographic factors including gender, age and socio-economic status 16 . The reported strengths of these relationships are, however, rather low.…”

“…Most reported bivariate correlation coefficients between a determinant and adolescent fruit and vegetable intake are moderate to weak (0.1 -0.2), and none above 0.4 have been reported. Furthermore, only a few analytical studies investigating correlates of fruit and vegetable intake among European children and adolescents have been conducted 7,18,23,24 . Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) can serve as a useful theoretical framework when investigating factors associated with fruit and vegetable intake 25,26 .…”