Mediterranean Diet Adherence among Preschoolers and its Association with Parents’ Beliefs, Attitudes, and Practices

ABSTRACT

The effect of parents on nutritional habits in preschool children is undeniable. It is known that parental control in child nutrition can affect the child’s eating habits, and bodyweight. Mediterranean Diet (MD) adherence of children (KIDMED), parents’ beliefs, attitudes and practices (Preschool Feeding Questionnaire-PFQ2) were investigated. The questionnaire prepared was applied by researchers face-to-face to 1413 families who agreed to participate voluntarily in the research with preschool children. Parental beliefs, attitudes, and practices regarding child nutrition status of parents were evaluated using 39-item PFQ2 and their child’s eating habits using the 16-item KIDMED index. Children’s KIDMED scores were found optimal in 34.1%, average in 57.0%, very low in 8.9%. The KIDMED scores of children whose parents are together (6.6 ± 2.1) were found to be significantly higher than children whose parents are separated (4.9 ± 2.2) (p <.001). A correlation was found between the KIDMED scores of the children, the parental control (r = 0.156, p <.001), maternal restriction (r = 0.104, p <.001), and structured feeding (r = 0.162, p <.001). Unfortunately, the adherence of most preschool children with the MD which considered a healthy diet pattern was found below the optimal level.

KEYWORDS:

• Preschool children
• kidmed
• mediterranean diet
• adherence
• parents
• nutrition

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the parents who devoted their time to participate in this study. They are warmly acknowledged for their helpful and wholehearted cooperation.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.