engleski

Parental willingness to participate in a nutrition-health survey in relation to child’s nutritional status

An observational study was conducted on parents of 226 children (114 boys, 112 girls) who were asked whether they are willing to participate in a nutrition-health survey focused on children. Child’s state of nourishment was assess by using IOTF cut-off values, and Cardio-Metabolic Risk (CMR ; waist-to-height ratio). Total of 102 parents (45.1%) agreed to participate in the survey. More girls were underweight (17.9% vs 11.5%) and overweight (14.3% vs 8.8%) in comparison to boys, with the same obesity rates (9.8% of obese girls vs 9.7% boys). Parents who have obese children were more likely to refuse to participate (p=0.019) in comparison to parents of underweight children. Parents of boys were more likely to refuse to participate (p=0.017). Significantly higher CMR have children of parents who refused to participate (p=0.017). Unemployment (p<0.001) and high-school diploma, especially for mothers were indicators of refusal to participate in the survey. Interestingly, parents with primary school and those with PhDs refused to participate in 100%. The results clearly show the distortion of the data regarding child’s nutritional status. In order to get representative data, both researches and clinicians need to imply techniques to encourage parents to participate in nutrition- health surveys.

parental behavior ; child’s state of nourishment ; survey participation ; parental education ; parental employment status

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