Influence of Nutrition Knowledge and Eating Habits of Parents on Pupils' Eating Habits

Objective To investigate the present situation of nutrition knowledge and eating habits among parents of pupils and the influence there of upon their children-pupils' eating habits. Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted among 1150 fourth, fifth ,and sixth graders in the city proper of Jinzhou, Liaoning Province, and Guangning town under its jurisdiction and 1150 corresponding parents by cluster sampling. Results 88.6% of the parents knew the vitamin C-rich food, 80.9% of them knew the cholesterol-rich food, and 81.4% of them knew whether polished white rice and polished wheat flour are good to health. 79.1% of them knew the food providing animal protein. More than 87% of them knew the etiology of endemic goiter. About half of them knew the calcium-supplementing food of choice. Only a quarter of the parents heard of the food pyramid and carotene-rich food. 16.2% of the parents and 18.8% of the pupils often had between-meal nibbles. 9.8% of the parents and 22.2% of the pupils often drank sweet soft drink. 3.1% of the pupils did not have breakfast. 24.4% of the parents liked salty food. 6.7% of the parents liked oily food. There was not a significant difference in nutrition knowledge and eating habits between the parents of city proper and the parents of the county town. Conclusion The parents have a certain knowledge about nutrition. However, they still lack knowledge about the food pyramid and carotene-rich food. The nutrition-related knowledge rates about different topics among the pupils are highly correlated with those among the parents . The eating habits of parents exert a great influence on those of their children-pupils.