Evaluation of nutritional knowledge of second grade school children and assessment of their dietary intake.

The aim of the study was assessment of the general nutrition knowledge and physical activity rate among the first grade school age children and evaluation of their diet and nutritional skills based on the parental interviews. Cross-sectional study was conducted in randomly selected schools of Tbilisi. In each school was selected one group of the second grade children and their parents by cluster selection method. A population of 290 children aged 6-8 years and their parents were interviewed. The statistical analysis was carried out by means of the SPPS 17. Questionnaires, except those with incomplete answers (n=30), were used for the analytical data. The study shows that in general, the level of knowledge related to rich sources of nutrients was poor. The most of the children can't identify the role of calcium (72,6%), proteins (68,1%) and iron (84,6 %). Children prefer to eat and select foods which they like (71,8%), such as sweets and cakes, hamburgers, chips and etc. The study showed that the most of the children (83,3%) have normal weight for age, underweight was revealed in 3,1% of children, more frequent was overweight (12,3%) and obesity (1,4%). There wasn't significant difference of overweight and underweight distribution in boys and girls. The assessment of child dietary intake show, that intake of fruits and vegetables, as well as milk and milk products is quite low, while intake of bread and pastry, and sweets and cakes are quite high. Daily consumption of sweets and snacks was significantly higher in girls (64.2%) than in boys (47.5%) (p<0.01). The study revealed that only 62 % of children eat the breakfast, in frequent cases children eat very fast (26,1%), 47,8 % of children need to remind to wash hands before eating, most children 60,4% view TV during the meal time or play computer games. The most of the children play the active games approximately 30-60 minutes, quite often children play active games only 20-30 minutes that is much less then WHO recommendations. The parent questionnaires reveal that most frequent problem that influenced child nutrition is lack of information about healthy feeding (55%), lack of time for preparation of food (33%), inability to control child's feeding (36%), financial deficit (4%). The dietary intake of children does not correspond to WHO recommendations. It is recommended on the one hand to conduct country wide assessment of dietary intake of children and adolescent and on the other hand to implement nutrition education programs.