Analysis of Factors Associated with the Preschool Children's Nutrition Awareness -I. Assessment of the nutrition awareness and involvement in food-related activities-

유아기 어린이의 영양 인식과 관련된 요인 분석 -I. 영양 인식 평가 및 식생활 참여 정도-

The objectives of the present study were to assess the preschool-children's awareness of nutrition, their level of control over foods and involvement in food-related activities and to examine the interrelationships among these variables. The children of this study demonstrated low levels of awareness of the concepts of food groups and the roles of both foods and exercise in energy balance. But the degree of children's awarences about the concepts of food transformations, food origins and food values was favorable. The range of possible scores was 0 to 18, while the range of the children's scores was 2 to 16. The mean score was 9.3, represently 52% of the questions answered correctly. Factors associated with the children's involvement in food-related activities were children's age, familly's income and mother's dietary balance. Children who were more involved in food related activities had significantly higher nutrition awareness scores.