A. Stafleu et al., NUTRITION KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS HIGH-FAT FOODS AND LOW-FAT ALTERNATIVES IN 3 GENERATIONS OF WOMEN, European journal of clinical nutrition, 50(1), 1996, pp. 33-41
Objectives: To assess family resemblance in food habits in three gener
ations of maternally related family members. Design and subjects: Nine
ty-seven adult women, their mothers and grandmothers were asked about
nutrition knowledge, attitudes and fat intake. Nutrition knowledge and
attitudes were determined by means of a self-administered questionnai
re. A food frequency questionnaire was used to assess fat intake. Resu
lts: Mean percentage energy derived from fat was 39% for the younger g
eneration, and 40% for their mothers and grandmothers. Generations dif
fered in their nutrition knowledge score (P < 0.0001), the grandmother
s having a lower nutrition knowledge than the other generations. Corre
lations of nutrition knowledge scores were 0.30 (95% confidence limits
(c.l.) 0.10 and 0.48) between the younger and middle generations, 0.3
5 (95% c.l. 0.16 and 0.52) between the middle and older generations, a
nd 0.14 (95% c.l. -0.06 and 0.34) between the younger generation and t
heir grandmothers. For attitudes towards high-fat foods and their low-
fat alternatives these figures were 0.27 (95% c.l. 0.07 and 0.45), 0.2
2 (95% c.l. 0.01 and 0.41), and 0.17 (95% c.l. -0.03 and 0.36), respec
tively, while for energy percentage of fat intake the correlations wer
e only 0.19 (95% c.l. -0.01 and 0.37), -0.02 (95% c.l. -0.22 and 0.18)
, and 0.12 (95% c.l. limits -0.08 and 0.31), respectively. Within gene
rations the correlations between attitudes and nutrition knowledge or
percentage energy derived from fat were found to be higher in the midd
le generation than in other generations. No statistically significant
correlations were found between nutrition knowledge and percentage ene
rgy derived from fat. Conclusions: From this study it can be concluded
that mothers and their adult daughters resemble each other in nutriti
on knowledge and attitudes.