Nutritional status of schoolchildren and mothers' knowledge of healthy lunch boxes, Lima-Perú

Abstract

Introduction: During the school stage, the family plays an important role in the child's feeding style; however, the decisions made by parents about feeding practices are influenced by social, cultural and/or economic factors.

Objective: To identify the relationship between the nutritional status of schoolchildren and knowledge about lunch boxes among mothers in an educational institution.

Material and methods: The research had a quantitative approach, non-experimental, cross-sectional and correlational design. It had a non-probabilistic sample by convenience formed by 133 schoolchildren of both sexes from 6 to 12 years of age and their respective mothers also participated (n= 133) and average age of 23 years (SD=2.3). A nutritional evaluation record card and the knowledge questionnaire were used, which was validated through expert judgment, with excellent reliability and validity. SPSS was used for the statistical analysis, and the Chi-square test was used.

Results: The nutritional status of the schoolchildren according to BMI/age was 73.6% normal and 2.3% thin; 91% were normal height, 7.5% short height and 1.5% tall height. The mothers' level of knowledge of healthy lunchboxes was low at 2.3%, regular at 50.4% and high at 47.4%. There is a relationship between BMI/age of the schoolchild and knowledge about lunch boxes in mothers (p= 0.024), but there is no relationship between height/age of the schoolchild (p= 0.527).

Conclusions: There is a relationship between the BMI/age of the schoolchild and the knowledge about lunch boxes in the mothers of an educational institution.