Nutrition knowledge and food intake of seven-year-old children in an atherosclerosis prevention project with onset in infancy: the impact of child-targeted nutrition counselling given to the parents

Objective: To compare nutrition knowledge and food intake in 7-y-old interv ention and control children in an atherosclerosis risk factor intervention trial after 6.5 y of nutrition counselling given to the parents. Design, subjects and methods: intervention families in the (S) under bar pe cial (T) under bar urku (C) under bar oronary (R) under bar isk (F) under b ar actor (I) under bar ntervention (P) under bar roject received child-orie nted nutritional counselling one to three times a year since child's age of 7 months, aimed at reduced saturated fat and cholesterol intake. Children' s nutrition knowledge was analysed in a time-restricted cohort of 70 seven- y-old (34 boys) intervention children and 70 control children (40 boys) wit h a picture identification test. For comparison, children's food intake was evaluated using scores developed for the project that reflected quality an d quantity of fat and quantity of salt in children's two or three 4-day foo d diaries recorded between 5.5 and 7 y of age. Results: Child-targeted nutrition counselling of the intervention families only slightly increased intervention children's knowledge of heart-healthy foods (42.6% vs 34.9% correct answers by the intervention and control child ren, P = 0.057). Only less than or equal to 20% of the children were able t o adequately justify their answers in the test. The food diaries of the int ervention children comprised more foods low in saturated fat and high in un saturated fat than those of the control children (57.1% vs 41.7% of the max imum score for low fat foods, P = 0.0001; 48.9% vs 37.7% for high unsaturat ed fat foods, P = 0.0009, respectively), but the intervention and control c hildren consumed similar amounts of low-salt foods (P=0.23). Nutrition know ledge and food use scores correlated poorly (r = - 0.20-0.35). Conclusions: Child-targeted nutrition counselling repeatedly given to the p arents during and after child's infancy strongly influenced food choice sco res of the 5.5-7-y-old children but failed to influence children's salt int ake or scores in a nutrition knowledge picture test.