Healthy Diets from sustainable food Systems Initiative, Bioversity International, Nairobi, Kenya.
Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems Initiative, Bioversity International, Rome, Italy.
Matern Child Nutr. 2019 Jan;15(1):e12633. doi: 10.1111/mcn.12633. Epub 2018 Jul 3.
Smallholder farmers dependent on rain-fed agriculture experience seasonal variations in food and nutrient availability occasioned by seasonality of production patterns. This results in periods of nutrient abundance in the plenty seasons followed closely by periods of nutrient inadequacies and malnutrition. This pattern contributes to a cycle of deteriorating health and nutrition status and deprives children of their ability to realize full developmental potential. This study investigates the role of caregiver's nutritional knowledge and attitudes in mediating effects of seasonality on children's diets. Repeated cross-sectional surveys were conducted on 151 randomly selected households in the plenty and lean seasons to collect dietary data using two non-consecutive quantitative 24-hr recalls and caregiver's nutritional knowledge and attitudes assessed using interviewer administered questionnaire. Sixty-five percent of the caregivers had attained a primary level education or less. There was a positive modest correlation between caregivers' nutritional knowledge and their attitudes (r = 0.3, P < 0.000, α = 0.01). Children's mean adequacy ratio was significantly higher in the plenty season than in the lean season (0.84 vs. 0.80, P < 0.000). A two-block hierarchical regression to predict the seasonal changes in dietary quality of children using caregiver's nutritional knowledge and attitude scores while controlling for the effect of sociodemographics and mean adequacy ratio at first season (plenty) found that caregiver's nutritional knowledge (ß = -0.007, SE = 0.003, P = 0.027, 95% CI [-0.013, -0.001] ŋ = 0.034) but not attitudes had significant contribution to the prediction. Maternal nutritional knowledge mediates seasonal variation in child nutrient intakes.
小农户依赖雨养农业，其食物和营养供应会随季节性生产模式而出现变化。这导致在丰季时营养丰富，紧接着便进入营养不足和营养不良的淡季。这种模式导致健康和营养状况不断恶化，并使儿童丧失充分发挥其发展潜力的能力。本研究调查了照顾者的营养知识和态度在多大程度上调节季节性对儿童饮食的影响。在丰季和淡季，采用两次非连续的定量 24 小时回忆法收集饮食数据，并使用访谈者管理的问卷评估照顾者的营养知识和态度，对 151 户随机选择的家庭进行了重复的横断面调查。65%的照顾者仅接受过小学或以下教育。照顾者的营养知识与其态度之间存在正适度相关(r=0.3，P<0.000，α=0.01)。在丰季，儿童的平均充足率显著高于淡季(0.84 对 0.80，P<0.000)。采用两阶段分层回归，在控制社会人口统计学因素和第一季节(丰季)的平均充足率的影响的基础上，使用照顾者的营养知识和态度评分来预测儿童饮食质量的季节性变化，结果发现照顾者的营养知识(β=-0.007，SE=0.003，P=0.027，95%CI[-0.013，-0.001]ŋ=0.034)而不是态度对预测有显著贡献。母亲的营养知识调节儿童营养素摄入量的季节性变化。
