Investigation Of The Diet And Nutritional Status Of The Left-behind Children Aged 2～6 Years In Rural China

[Objective] To understand the rural left-behind children's dietary nutritional status, dietary behaviors and the non-parents caregiver's nutritional knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) and to find out if the rural left-behind children's dietary behaviors and and the non-parents caregiver's nutritional KAP have effect on the children's dietary nutritional status, in order to provide scientific evidences for the nutritional intervention among the rural left-behind children.[Methods] 2245 children aged 2 to 6, including 1124 rural left-behind children and 1121 comparison children, were selected by using multistage stratified cluster random sampling. The total number of sample was 2268 children (1134 left-behind children and 1134 comparison children). The ascertainment methods mainly included questionnaire and dietary survey which contains the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and the three-day weighing dietary method.[Results]①The rural left-behind children's dietary nutritional status were not good, which were worse than the comparison children. The rural left-behind children mainly consumed grains and vegetables, but the animal food and the bean and bean products were defect. The mean score of DDP in the single parent-left-behind children was 70.71±10.14, which was significantly lower than the comparison children (P<0.05), and the mean score of DDP in the both parents-left-behind children was 70.94±10.45, which was significantly lower than the comparison children (P<0.05). The rural left-behind children's intakes of energy's and macronutrients were below the RNI or AI, and also the minerals such as calcium, zinc and selenium and vitamin such as vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B2. Most of the rural left-behind children intook insufficiently, the percentage of inadequate intake of energy reached 50%, and protein reached 80%, and the percentage of inadequate intake of the minerals such as calcium, zinc and vitamins such as vitamin B1 and vitamin B2 were more 90%. The energy was mainly from the carbohydrate, the protein and iron were mianly from the planty food.②The rural children's behaviors such as eating breakfast and having meals regularly were better, but the other behaviors were bad, particularly the picky eaters and partial eclipse behaviors. The single parent-left-behind children's drinking milk/soy behaviors were significantly worse than the comparison children (P<0.01).③The rural children's caregivers were lacking of nutrition knowledge (K). Average scores of the single parent-left-behind children's caregivers and the both parents-left-behind children were 2.97±1.74 and 2.87±1.78, and the score of the nutrition knowledge in the both parents-left-behind children's caregivers was significantly lower than the comparison children's caregivers (P<0.05).In the respects of the caregiver's nutrition attitude, the rural children's caregivers had a better attitude to correcting the children's picky eaters and partial eclipse behaviors and paying attention to the nutritional value of the food when choosing the food, but a worse attitude to preventing the children to eat snacks which was low in nutritional value and prepare meals for children who were under the 6 years old separately. And the rural left-behind children's caregivers had a significant worse attitude than the comparison children's caregivers (P<0.05). In the respects of the caregiver's nutrition practice, the rural children's caregivers had a better nutrition practice in preparing breakfast for children but the other nutrition practice were not good, paticularly providing the calcium-rich food for children. Only 1.0% of the single parent-left-behind children's caregivers provided the calcium-rich food for children every day, which were significantly worse than the comparison children (P<0.01). In addition, the both parents-left-behind children's caregivers nutrition practice of remind the children not to picky eaters and partial eclipse was significantly worse than and the comparison children's caregivers (P<0.01), and the both parents-left-behind children's caregivers nutrition practice of changing children's recipe to improve the children's nutrition status were significantly worse than the comparison children's caregivers (P<0.05).④The rural left-behind children's eating behavior and the left-behind children's caregiver's nutritional KAP both had effect on the rural left-behind children's DDP and the left-behind children's nutrients intake, and the pearson r was the highest between the children's eating behavior and the left-behind children's nutrients intake, which was 0.190 (P<0.01)[Conclusion] The dietary and nutritional status of the rural left-behind children aged 2～6 years were bad, which were worse than the comparison children. The dietary behaviors of the rural left-behind children aged 2～6 years were bad, which were worse than the comparison children. The left-behind chldren's caregiver's nutritional KAP were poor, which were worse than the comparison children. The rural left-behind children's eating behaviors and the non-parents caregiver's nutritional KAP both had effect on their dietary nutritional status.