Vaidya Abhinav, Oli Natalia, Krettek Alexandra, Eiben Gabriele
Department of Community Medicine, Kathmandu Medical College, Kathmandu.
Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Nutrition, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
J Nepal Health Res Counc. 2017 Sep 8;15(2):150-158. doi: 10.3126/jnhrc.v15i2.18205.
Though cardiovascular diseases are mostly seen in adulthood, the foundation of diet and physical activity is largely formed during childhood. The study aimed to explore children's preference for diet and physical activity in a peri-urban area of Nepal because this is an important dimension to explore in the life-course approach to combat non-communicable diseases.
We conducted a cross-sectional study to enquire young peri-urban children of Duwakot and Jhaukhel villages of Bhaktapur district, Nepal on their preferences for diet and physical activity. All eligible households with children in the age range 5-10 years as enlisted from the Jhaukhel-Duwakot Health Demographic Surveillance Site database were selected for the study. Twelve enumerators visited the selected households and facilitated the eligible children to fill in the questionnaire. We used a child-friendly photo-assisted questionnaire with face-scales that easily enabled the children to select a particular preference for each of the food item and physical activity. During analysis, food items were categorized into 'green', 'yellow' and 'red' on the basis of their nutritive values. Physical activity was categorized based on severity of the activity.
Four hundred and thirty seven children filled up the questionnaires. Overall, median preference scores for 'red' food were higher than for healthier 'green' food (4.16 vs. 4.03), particularly, if mothers were self-employed. Likewise, the children preferred low over moderate-to-severe physical activity (4.16 vs. 3.50), and preference was affected by parents' occupation and income.
The study objectively revealed that most of the children preferred unhealthier food-items and low physical activities. It shall be useful to consider these findings while planning health promotional activities targeted at them.
尽管心血管疾病大多在成年期出现，但饮食和身体活动的基础很大程度上在儿童时期形成。本研究旨在探索尼泊尔城郊地区儿童对饮食和身体活动的偏好，因为这是在应对非传染性疾病的生命历程方法中需要探索的一个重要方面。
我们进行了一项横断面研究，询问尼泊尔巴克塔普尔地区杜瓦科特和焦凯尔村城郊的儿童对饮食和身体活动的偏好。从焦凯尔 - 杜瓦科特健康人口监测点数据库中登记的所有有5至10岁儿童的合格家庭被选入研究。12名调查员走访了选定的家庭，并协助符合条件的儿童填写问卷。我们使用了一份对儿童友好的、带有面部量表的照片辅助问卷，这使得儿童能够轻松地为每种食物和身体活动选择特定的偏好。在分析过程中，食物根据其营养价值被分为“绿色”“黄色”和“红色”。身体活动根据活动强度进行分类。
437名儿童填写了问卷。总体而言，如果母亲是个体经营者，“红色”食物的偏好中位数得分高于更健康的“绿色”食物（4.16对4.03）。同样，儿童更喜欢低强度而非中等到高强度的身体活动（4.16对3.50），并且偏好受父母职业和收入的影响。
该研究客观地表明，大多数儿童更喜欢不健康的食物和低强度的身体活动。在针对他们规划健康促进活动时考虑这些发现将是有益的。
