Service Providers’ Perspectives on Barriers of Healthy Eating to Prevent Obesity among Low-income Children Attending Community Childcare Centers in South Korea: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Service providers' perspectives on barriers of healthy eating to prevent obesity among low-income children attending community childcare centers in South Korea: A qualitative study.

Who are the Assistant Cooks at the Community Child Centers in South Korea? Focus Group Interviews with Workfare Program Participants

“…This difference may be attributable to various factors, one of which is a lack of understanding of the assistant cooks' roles and responsibilities. For instance, parents and CCC workers identified assistant cooks as significant contributors to CCC children's obesity rates [17], while in this study, assistant cooks tended to blame parents and CCC workers for the children's obesity. This type of finger-pointing may undermine mutual trust, and such conflict between stakeholders may adversely impact children from low-income families.…”

“…An interesting finding in our study was that there was a stark contrast between assistant cooks' and others' perspectives on their performance. Other CCC workers, parents, and the national agency that manage assistant cooks described them as incompetent participants of a workforce program who lacked responsibility [17]. This type of classification may stigmatize those who participate in workforce programs.…”

“…In addition, a recent study by Kwon and Yeoh [15] showed that the food served at CCCs did not meet the current dietary and nutrition standards for growing children in Korea. Slightly more than half of the centers (55.7%) had the facilities to systematically provide average-to-good quality food, but a lack of expertise and frequent employee turnover of assistant cooks at CCCs were repeatedly mentioned as problems [16,17].…”

“…As a first step to improve healthy food practices at CCCs, it is necessary to identify all stakeholders related to the health of children who attend CCCs and to understand all barriers and facilitating factors that may affect the provision of healthy food. We performed a needs assessment with stakeholders, including obese children and their primary caregivers and service providers at centers, to identify these problems [17,19]. In partic-ular, a commonly mentioned problem was the assistant cooks' lack of skills or knowledge and responsibility with respect to the importance of their role, which is directly related to the health and quality of the meal service [17].…”

“…We performed a needs assessment with stakeholders, including obese children and their primary caregivers and service providers at centers, to identify these problems [17,19]. In partic-ular, a commonly mentioned problem was the assistant cooks' lack of skills or knowledge and responsibility with respect to the importance of their role, which is directly related to the health and quality of the meal service [17]. However, no study has yet investigated the role played by assistant cooks at CCCs, how they cook and prepare meals, and what barriers and facilitating factors they face.…”