Hatefnia Effat, Azizi Parvin, Qorbani Mostafa, Safari-Moradabadi Ali
Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Public Health, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran.
Non-Communicable Disease Research Center, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran.
J Educ Health Promot. 2024 Apr 29;13:144. doi: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_358_23. eCollection 2024.
Childhood obesity is one of the most serious global public health challenges of the 21 century, affecting every country in the world. Mothers' beliefs and perceptions about their children's obesity and overweight are key to obesity prevention. Given the importance of this issue, the present study aimed to determine perceptions and beliefs of mothers' nutritional behaviors related to overweight preschool children.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 350 mothers of preschool children with health records who were referred to child health assessment centers. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire based on the health belief model. SPSS19 was used for data analysis. < 0.05 was considered significant.
The participants (350) included 52% 25-36 years old, and 57.3% live in rural areas. There was a significant difference in the mean perceived susceptibility between mothers with obese children and normal-weight children ( < 0.05). There was a significant positive relationship between severity and perceived benefits and a significant negative relationship with mothers' knowledge. There was also a significant negative relationship between self-efficacy and perceived barriers ( > 0.05).
The results of this study showed that maternal health beliefs were effective in the formation of obesity prevention behaviors in children. In this regard, educational interventions can play an important role in the proper practice of such behaviors.
儿童肥胖是21世纪最严峻的全球公共卫生挑战之一，影响着世界上的每个国家。母亲对其子女肥胖和超重的看法及认知是预防肥胖的关键。鉴于此问题的重要性，本研究旨在确定母亲与超重学龄前儿童相关的营养行为的认知和信念。
本横断面研究对350名有健康记录且前往儿童健康评估中心的学龄前儿童的母亲进行。数据收集工具是基于健康信念模型由研究者自制的问卷。采用SPSS19进行数据分析。P<0.05被视为具有统计学意义。
350名参与者中，52%年龄在25至36岁之间，57.3%居住在农村地区。肥胖儿童的母亲与正常体重儿童的母亲在平均感知易感性方面存在显著差异（P<0.05）。严重性与感知益处之间存在显著正相关，与母亲的知识之间存在显著负相关。自我效能感与感知障碍之间也存在显著负相关（P>0.05）。
本研究结果表明，母亲的健康信念对儿童预防肥胖行为的形成具有影响。在这方面，教育干预在这些行为的正确实施中可发挥重要作用。
