Nutrition knowledge and food intake of seven-year-old children in an atherosclerosis prevention project with onset in infancy: the impact of child-targeted nutrition counselling given to the parents

Abstract

Objective: To compare nutrition knowledge and food intake in 7-y-old intervention and control children in an atherosclerosis risk factor intervention trial after 6.5 y of nutrition counselling given to the parents.

Design, subjects and methods: Intervention families in the Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project received child-oriented nutritional counselling one to three times a year since child's age of 7 months, aimed at reduced saturated fat and cholesterol intake. Children's nutrition knowledge was analysed in a time-restricted cohort of 70 seven-y-old (34 boys) intervention children and 70 control children (40 boys) with a picture identification test. For comparison, children's food intake was evaluated using scores developed for the project that reflected quality and quantity of fat and quantity of salt in children's two or three 4-day food diaries recorded between 5.5 and 7 y of age.

Results: Child-targeted nutrition counselling of the intervention families only slightly increased intervention children's knowledge of heart-healthy foods (42.6% vs 34.9% correct answers by the intervention and control children, P=0.057). Only ≤20% of the children were able to adequately justify their answers in the test. The food diaries of the intervention children comprised more foods low in saturated fat and high in unsaturated fat than those of the control children (57.1% vs 41.7% of the maximum score for low fat foods, P=0.0001; 48.9% vs 37.7% for high unsaturated fat foods, P=0.0009, respectively), but the intervention and control children consumed similar amounts of low-salt foods (P=0.23). Nutrition knowledge and food use scores correlated poorly (r=−0.20–0.35).

Conclusions: Child-targeted nutrition counselling repeatedly given to the parents during and after child's infancy strongly influenced food choice scores of the 5.5–7-y-old children but failed to influence children's salt intake or scores in a nutrition knowledge picture test.

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2001) 55, 260–267