Fruit and vegetable consumption among young school children in Pokhara, Kaski: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Low intake of fruit and vegetable (F&V) increased the risk of non-communicable diseases, followed by disability and death. The fact that many diseases in adulthood have their origins in habits formed during childhood is undeniable. Therefore, the study assessed the prevalence of fruit and vegetable consumption among young schoolchildren aged 5 to 9 years. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 352 children from March 8 to September 4, 2020. The multistage sampling method was used to select samples. A face-to-face interview was done with one of the parents at their home. Univariate and bivariate analyses were computed at a 5% level of significance. Ethical approval was obtained from the Nepal Health Research Council. Results: Out of 352 children, none of the children met the WHO recommendation of F&V of ≥5 servings per day. Around two percentage (2.30%) of children consumed neither fruits nor vegetables, while only 46(13%) had taken F&V at least three servings per day. Children’s higher F&V intake was found to be associated with family monthly income, parents’ higher education, the presence of a fruit and vegetable shop nearby, and giving money to children. Conclusions: Intake of F&V as compared to the recommendation was very low in the study area. This requires an immediate response including nutrition education for parents, teachers, and decision-makers and increasing easy access to F&V.

Functional Foods’ Consumption in Children and Parents: A Literature Review

“…Last but not least, our findings imply that the socioeconomic status (education, work experience and income) of parents is consistently associated with the nutritional status and F/V consumption of children. In children with low-educated parents compared to their peers, those with higher education levels had a greater daily consumption rate of F&V. Also, children of parents with a high family income had higher odds of consuming more F&V [37,43,[49][50][51][52][53][54][55]. Nevertheless, in Attorp's and de Jong's research, there was nothing similar to the abovementioned studies, as they found that parents' income and education were not significantly associated with their children's F&V consumption [56,57].…”

“…Findings showed that most parents and children were not consuming the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. On the other hand, in Eliason's and Charneca's studies, it appeared that most children, especially the younger age groups, met WHO guidelines for the daily amount of fruit.…”