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

This study aimed to identify individual and socio-ecological barriers in managing healthy eating among low-income children from the perspective of community childcare (CCC) center workers (n = 18) through focus group interviews. They perceived the increase in obesity among low-income children. The interviews revealed that the child’s eating habits are affected by not only individual determinants including self-regulation and risk awareness but also environmental factors such as family, CCC centers, policy and social structure. To enhance children’s health and behavior, it is necessary to consider the interactions among systems at a variety of levels, for example, local community and health care policies.

KEYWORDS:

• Feeding behavior
• focus groups
• health status disparities
• pediatric obesity

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) [No. 2015R1C1A1A01052892].