Parenting, Food Practices and Health Conceptions in Bhaktapur

PLOS ONE, 2018

The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases is increasing in low and middle-income countries; Nepal's population shows a high prevalence of behavioral risk factors. Our cross-sectional study in the Jhaukhel-Duwakot Health Demographic Surveillance Site (JD-HDSS), located near the capital Kathmandu, explored knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of mothers with young children regarding diet and physical activity and mothers' perception of their children's attitude and behavior toward the same issues. The purpose of our study was to assess needs of the mothers concerning cardiovascular health in general and more specifically regarding diet and physical activity, and to establish a baseline for future intervention in the community by comparing two villages of JD-HDSS. In August-November 2014, nine trained enumerators interviewed all mothers of children aged 1-7 years (N = 962). We scored responses on dietary and physical activity KAP, then categorized the scores based on the percentage obtained out of the maximum possible scores into "poor," "fair," and "good." More highly educated mothers scored higher for KAP (all p<0.001); the children's behavior score reflected their mother's education level (p = 0.007). Most respondents were unfamiliar with the concept of healthy and unhealthy food. Overall, 57% of respondents in JD-HDSS had "good" knowledge, 44.6% had "good" attitude, and most (90%) had "poor" practice. We observed no significant differences between the villages regarding mothers' knowledge and attitude or children's behavior. Practice score of mothers in Jhaukhel was higher than those in Duwakot regarding diet and physical activity (p<0.001). Mothers' perceived barriers for improving lifestyle were high cost of healthy food, taste preference of other family members, and lack of knowledge regarding healthy food. Barriers for physical activity were lack of leisure time, absence of parks and playgrounds, busy caring for children and old people, feeling lazy, and embarrassed to be physically active in front of others. Our findings suggest that a health education intervention promoting a healthy lifestyle for

Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare

Background: Small children have less control over their dietary intake and parents have a major role to play in it. The aim of our study was to determine parental child feeding practices and their association with the weight status and dietary intake of the child. Design and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 138 parents and preschool children attending two private schools in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal using a structured questionnaire. Parents filled in a self-report questionnaire to assess child feeding practices, perceived activity level of the child, and dietary intake at home. Child's height and weight was measured using a standard height scale and a digital weighing scale. A digital food scale was used for measuring dietary intake. Results: Eight percent of the children were overweight and another 8% were obese. On bivariate analysis, the BMI of parents had weak, positive, and significant correlation (r=0.206, p=0.016 for fathers; r=0.307, p≤0.001 for mothers) with child's weight status. Similarly, concern about child's overweight had a significant, positive correlation (r=0.232, p=0.006) with the weight status of the child. Furthermore, these three independent variables were found to be significant predictors of a child's weight status on multivariate analysis. None of the studied independent variables was associated with dietary intake. Conclusion: The study concludes that parental BMI and parental concern about the child being overweight is significantly associated with the weight status of the child.

BMC Nutrition, 2023

Background School-based interventions have been implemented in resource-limited settings to promote healthy dietary habits, but their sustainability remains a challenge. This study identified positive deviants (PDs) and negative deviants (NDs) from the control and treatment groups in a nutrition-sensitive agricultural intervention in Nepal to identify factors associated with healthy dietary practices. Methods This is an explanatory mixed methods study. Quantitative data come from the endline survey of a cluster randomized controlled trial of a school and home garden intervention in Nepal. Data were analyzed from 332 and 317 schoolchildren (grades 4 and 5) in the control and treatment group, respectively. From the control group, PDs were identified as schoolchildren with a minimum dietary diversity score (DDS) ≥ 4 and coming from low wealth index households. From the treatment group, NDs were identified as schoolchildren with a DDS < 4 and coming from high wealth index households. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with PDs and NDs. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth phone interviews with nine pairs of parents and schoolchildren in each PD and ND group. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically and integrated with quantitative data in the analysis. Results Twenty-three schoolchildren were identified as PDs, and 73 schoolchildren as NDs. Schoolchildren eating more frequently a day (AOR = 2.25; 95% CI:1.07-5.68) and whose parents had a higher agricultural knowledge level (AOR = 1.62; 95% CI:1.11-2.34) were more likely to be PDs. On the other hand, schoolchildren who consumed diverse types of vegetables (AOR = 0.56; 95% CI: 0.38-0.81), whose parents had higher vegetable preference (AOR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.53-0.97) and bought food more often (AOR = 0.71; 95% CI: 0.56-0.88) were less likely to be NDs. Yet, schoolchildren from households with a grandmother (AOR = 1.98; 95% CI: 1.03-3.81) were more likely to be NDs. Integrated results identified four themes that influenced schoolchildren's DDS: the availability of diverse food, the involvement of children in meal preparation, parental procedural knowledge, and the grandmother's presence. Conclusion Healthy dietary habit can be promoted among schoolchildren in Nepal by encouraging parents to involve their children in meal preparation and increasing the awareness of family members.

Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 2019

Background: Small children have less control over their dietary intake and parents have a major role to play in it. The aim of our study was to determine parental child feeding practices and their association with the weight status and dietary intake of the child. Design and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 138 parents and preschool children attending two private schools in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal using a structured questionnaire. Parents filled in a self-report questionnaire to assess child feeding practices, perceived activity level of the child, and dietary intake at home. Child's height and weight was measured using a standard height scale and a digital weighing scale. A digital food scale was used for measuring dietary intake. Results: Eight percent of the children were overweight and another 8% were obese. On bivariate analysis, the BMI of parents had weak, positive, and significant correlation (r=0.206, p=0.016 for fathers; r=0.307, p≤0.001 for mothers) with child's weight status. Similarly, concern about child's overweight had a significant, positive correlation (r=0.232, p=0.006) with the weight status of the child. Furthermore, these three independent variables were found to be significant predictors of a child's weight status on multivariate analysis. None of the studied independent variables was associated with dietary intake. Conclusion: The study concludes that parental BMI and parental concern about the child being overweight is significantly associated with the weight status of the child.

FOOD & NUTRITIONAL SCIENCES JOURNAL (FNSJ), 2025

Food is an essential element for humans to live and sustain life. Every person needs to have an adequate diet to lead an active and healthy life. Food consumption is a key determinant of nutritional adequacy and overall health of the population of a country. Food consumption simply refers to the attitude and behavior shown in consuming food. Food Consumption behavior is one of the important issues because food is an essential element for humans to live and sustain life and a key determinant of nutritional adequacy and overall health of the population of a country. This study was conducted in Bhujung village of Lamjung district. The total sample size for this study was 60. In this study, descriptive and cross-sectional research design was adopted. The socioeconomic and demographic data reveal that the majority of respondents were female and belonged to the Gurung community, with Bon being the most practiced religion. Agriculture was the primary occupation, and nearly half of the respondents had a monthly income between NPR 10,000-20,000. Most respondents consumed four meals a day, with tea, maize, and other basic food items being the common choices for breakfast. Lunch primarily consisted of rice, lentils, and vegetables, while tiffin included maize, tea, and biscuits. Dinner was dominated by rice, followed by vegetables, meat, and pulses. Over the past seven days, all respondents consumed grains, pulses, vegetables, fruits, and tea, while 90 Percent consumed meat, spices, and dairy products. Additionally, a significant portion of respondents consumed eggs, alcoholic beverages, and tobacco.

Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal, 2024

Food preferences. However, complex socioeconomic relations at play in specific locales may also influence food availability/affordability or preferences. The possibility of such a thesis emerged during a larger study on understanding local food health knowledge in landscape-based food systems—through interviews with several female respondents—wherein the issue of school-going children missing morning meals came to the surface.

Ecology of Food and Nutrition

Food systems in many countries are experiencing a shift from traditional foods toward processed foods high in sugar, fat and salt, but low in dietary fiber and micronutrients. There is an urgent need to better understand drivers of changing food behavior, particularly for lower-income countries. This study analyzes drivers of food choice among children and parents in rural Nepal. It uses qualitative data collected through key informant interviews and focus group discussions with school children, parents and teachers. The study reveals substantial changes in food behavior during the past decade with increased consumption of rice, meat, and highly processed snack foods while an increased consumption of fruit and vegetables is not evident. It identifies cash availability is the main driver of increased rice, meat and snack food consumption. The second driver is the 2015 Nepal earthquake, which accelerated the transition from homegrown food to purchased food as people got habituated to eating more meat and snack foods while reconstruction tripled local wages and changed the food environment. This shows how humanitarian assistance in the wake of extreme shocks can unintentionally contribute to unhealthy eating habits. An integrated school and home garden intervention appears to contribute to healthier diets.

PLOS ONE, 2019

Instances of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes are on the rise globally leading to greater morbidity and mortality, with the greatest burden in low and middle income countries [LMIC]. A major contributing factor to diabetes is unhealthy dietary behaviour. We conducted 38 semi structured interviews with patients, health professionals, policy-makers and researchers in Kathmandu, Nepal, to better understand the determinants of dietary behaviour amongst patients with diabetes and high blood glucose levels. We created a social ecological model which is specific to socio-cultural context with our findings with the aim of informing culturally appropriate dietary behaviour interventions for improving dietary behaviour. Our findings show that the most influential determinants of dietary behaviour include cultural practices (gender roles relating to cooking), social support (from family and friends), the political and physical environment (political will, healthy food availability) and individuals' motivations and capabilities. Using these most influential determinants, we suggest potentially effective dietary interventions that could be implemented by policy makers. Our findings emphasise the importance of considering socio-cultural context in developing interventions and challenges one-size-fits-all approaches which are often encouraged by global guidelines. We demonstrate how multifaceted and multi layered models of behavioural influence can be used to develop policy and practice with the aim of reducing mortality and morbidity from diabetes.

International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 2019

Background: The cultural beliefs, food taboos play a key role on women and child health in India. Those food practices and taboos directly impact on women and children health. Moreover, these are one of the causes for malnutrition in women and child; sometimes it also leads to death.Methods: The methodology of this study is qualitative study. The primary data collected in Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam districts of Andhra Pradesh, through in-depth-interviews with the help of semi structured interview guides. The selection of the informants is based on simple random selection.Results: All informants are women and they all are home makers only. They not do participant any income generation activities. Seventy five percentages (75%) of the informants are lives in below poverty line, and twenty five percentages (25%) of women are in above poverty line.Conclusions: The cultural beliefs and practices play a role in the distribution of nutrition messages to the community. Those beliefs are a...

IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2016

Nutrition is a concept essentially linked with access to food, utilisation of food and assimilation and retention through proper health and hygiene. Within this perspective, the present paper looks into the utilisation of food within a household where gender attitudes and self-esteem of 300 rural mothers from two districts of West Bengal were considered. The study looks into the impact of the above, on the nutrition and health security of 425 school going children from same socioeconomic status, studying at primary level, in the age group of 5 to 12 years, under the ICDS midday meal scheme. The data was drawn by applying Clinical Nutrition Survey Chart; 24-hr recall method and Food Frequency Questionnaire, health and immunization records and expenditure on education, taking into consideration the gender of the child, birth order, and sex of the sibling. In this SPSS-17 was used for the descriptive statistics, t-test, χ2 for association and odd ratio calculation. It was seen that mothers with higher self-esteem had better gender attitudes at 0.05% level of significance. Further, it was seen that apart from gendered attitudes of the mothers, the cultural ethos related to the birth order of the child and the sex of its siblings are detrimental to the nutrition and health security of the girl child.