Mothers’ Vegetable Consumption Behaviors and Preferences as Factors Limiting the Possibility of Increasing Vegetable Consumption in Children in a National Sample of Polish and Romanian Respondents

Increasing the insufficient intake of vegetables in children may be difficult, due to the influence of parents and at-home accessibility. The aim of this study was to analyze the association between self-reported vegetable consumption behaviors and preferences of mothers and the behaviors and prefer...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Barbara Groele, Dominika Głąbska, Krystyna Gutkowska, Dominika Guzek
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-05-01
Series:Nutrients
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/11/5/1078
Description
Summary:Increasing the insufficient intake of vegetables in children may be difficult, due to the influence of parents and at-home accessibility. The aim of this study was to analyze the association between self-reported vegetable consumption behaviors and preferences of mothers and the behaviors and preferences of their children, as declared by them. The nationally representative Polish (<i>n</i> = 1200) and Romanian (<i>n</i> = 1157) samples of mothers of children aged 3&#8211;10 were obtained using the random quota sampling method, and interviewed for their and their children&#8217;s general frequency of consumption and preferences of vegetables in years 2012&#8211;2014. A 24 h dietary recall of vegetable consumption was conducted for mothers and their children. Associations were observed for general number of servings consumed per day by mother&#8211;child pairs (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.0001; <i>R</i> = 0.6522, <i>R</i> = 0.6573 for Polish and Romanian samples, respectively) and number of types indicated as preferred (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.0001; <i>R</i> = 0.5418, <i>R</i> = 0.5433). The share of children consuming specific vegetables was 33.1&#8211;75.3% and 42.6&#8211;75.7% while their mothers also consumed, but 0.1&#8211;43.2% and 1.2&#8211;22.9% while their mothers did not. The share of children preferring specific vegetables was 16.7&#8211;74.1% and 15.2&#8211;100% when their mother shared the preference, but 1.3&#8211;46.9% and 0&#8211;38.3% when their mother did not. The mothers&#8217; vegetable consumption behaviors and preferences may be a factor limiting the possibility of increasing vegetable consumption in their children.
ISSN:2072-6643