Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Mar 7;10(1):50.
doi: 10.1186/s40795-024-00832-2.

Child-eating behaviour as predictor of anthropometric status of preschool children aged 2-4 years in Umuahia South LGA Abia State, Nigeria

Ijioma Okorie  1 , Blessing K Nwofia  2 , Chinaza Ngonadi  2 , Adaeze C Okorie  3 , Ngozi M Nnam  4
Affiliations

Child-eating behaviour as predictor of anthropometric status of preschool children aged 2-4 years in Umuahia South LGA Abia State, Nigeria

Ijioma Okorie et al. BMC Nutr. .

Abstract

Introduction and objective: Eating behaviour at the childhood level plays a vital role in the outcome of the nutritional status and the overall health of an individual. The study was focused on the association between anthropometric status and child eating behaviour.

Methodology: A community-based cross-sectional survey purposively enrolled consenting participants from 256 households with preschool children aged 2-4 years. The parents/legal guardians were interviewed on the eating behaviour of their children using a validated semi-structured child-eating behaviour scale, and anthropometric measurement of the children were taken. WHO Anthro-software for child growth standards was used to categorize anthropometric status of the preschool children. Paired sample t-test was performed to compare child-eating behaviour by gender, while regression and correlation analysis was performed to determine the extent to which child-eating behaviour predicted anthropometric status at 5% level of significance.

Results: Mean comparison of child eating behaviour by gender showed significant difference (P < 0.05) between male and female children in their eating behaviour with respect to enjoyment of food and satiety responsiveness. Some of the children were wasted (26.6%), stunted (20.7%) and underweight (16.4%). A significant association (P < 0.05) was observed between body mass index-for-age and food fussiness behaviour of the children. There was also a significant difference (P < 0.05) between weight-for-age and food fussiness behaviour of the children.

Conclusion: The study showed that child eating behaviour may have contributed to the anthropometric status of the children, however, differences in their eating behaviours by gender was observed.

Keywords: Anthropometric Status; Child eating behaviour; Gender; Preschool children.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There is no conflict of interest and data described in the manuscript, code book, and analytic code will be made available upon request pending application.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Child eating behaviour status of the preschool children by gender
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Okorie I, Asumugha VU, Okorie AC. Assessment of body mass index-for-age status and child eating behaviour among preschool children (2–4 years) in igbo-etiti local government area, Enugu State, Nigeria. Nigerian J Nutritional Sci. 2018;39(2):96–103.
    1. Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) Nutrition of children and women. National Population Commission (NPC) [Nigeria] and ICF. 2019. Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey 2018. Nigeria, and Rockville, Maryland, USA: NPC and ICF: Abuja; 2018.
    1. Abdul Aziz MF, Devi MN. Nutritional status and eating practices among children aged 4–6 years old in selected urban and rural kindergarten in Selangor Malaysia. Asian J Clin Nutr. 2012;4(4):116–31. doi: 10.3923/ajcn.2012.116.131. - DOI
    1. Ategbo SJ, Kuissi E, Ngoungou EB. Epidemiology of childhood obesity in schools in Libreville and Owendo. Pediatr Archives. 2015;1:358. doi: 10.1016/S0929-693X(15)30669-2. - DOI
    1. Wardle J, Guthrie CA, Sanderson S. Development of the children’s eating behaviour questionnaire. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2011;42:963–70. doi: 10.1111/1469-7610.00792. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources