An examination of relevant factors attributable to child health, food behavior, and lifestyle concerns of parents with infants aged at least 18 months: With a view to expanding into Shokuiku (food and nutrition education)

Abstract

Objectives This study focused on food after weaning and examined the children's diet and home environmental factors that influence parents' concerns during health checkup for infants (aged 1.6 and 3 years).Methods In the analysis, 646 participants, excluding invalid responses, who cooperated with the survey during health checkup for 1.6- and 3-year-old in the Tohoku, Chubu, and Chugoku regions from March 2019 to January 2020, were included. The survey included 56 items of dietary, lifestyle, and health concerns (yes/no answers), child attributes, and frequency of food intake (six options, 18 types). Concern factors were extracted by factor analysis. The association between the worry scores and each factor was analyzed.Results The 1.6- and 3-year-olds were associated with high scores for (health awareness and lifestyle) and low fruit intake, high salty snacks intake, and low subjective economic status, high scores for (diet content and atmosphere) and low intakes of carotene-rich vegetables, other vegetables, seaweed, and fruits, high scores for (interest and motivation in food) and low carotene-rich vegetables intake, high scores for (food experience and behavior) and high cereals (bread) intake, low subjective economic status. The 3-year-olds were associated with high scores and being boys.Conclusion We extracted four worry factors that parents with children after the weaning period have and clarified the factors related to each factor and group characteristics.