NUTRITION KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS HIGH-FAT FOODS AND LOW-FAT ALTERNATIVES IN 3 GENERATIONS OF WOMEN

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.