Comparative study on growing status and nutrition and food safety knowledge, attitude and practice of rural left-behind children and non-left-behind children-based on empirical research among rural pupils in Hunan Province and Shanxi Province
TAN Tian, YANG Liu, LIU Li, LI Jie, PENG Ya-la
School of Agriculture Economics and Rural Development, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872,China
Abstract:Objective To compare the current status of growth as well as nutrition and food safety knowledge, attitude and practice between the left-behind children and the non-left-behind children in the rural areas in Hunan and Shanxi provinces so as to provide a basis for the relevant administrative departments to formulate intervention measures for the left-behind children’s healthy growing up. Methods The questionnaire was designed based on a large number of references. A simple and stratified random sampling method was used to select 1,026 pupils of grades 3-6 in the rural areas of Hunan and Shanxi provinces in 2015. The questionnaire survey was conducted under the on-site guidance of the researchers. t-test and χ2 test were used to analyze the differences in the growing status as well as nutrition and food safety knowledge, attitude and practice between the left-behind children and the non-left-behind children. Results The proportion of malnutrition was significantly higher in the surveyed left-behind children than in the non-left-behind children (19.37% vs. 16.32%, P<0.05). The eating behavior of the left-behind children was inferior to that of the non-left-behind children. 18.1% of the left-behind children and 9.4% of the non-left-behind children ate snacks instead of a meal. 16.6% of the left-behind children and 32.3% of the non-left-behind children had a good habit of drinking water, and the drinking habits of the left-behind children were more unscientific (P<0.05). The left-behind and the non-left-behind children both liked eating snacks and preferred the restricted snacks, but no statistically significant differences were found in the eating frequency and snack preference between them (both P>0.05). The amount of money for the purchase of snacks was significantly higher in the left behind-children than in the non-left-behind children, and the proportions of daily pocket money more than 2 RMB in the left-behind and the non-left-behind children were 19.6% and 11.1% respectively (P<0.05). They both lacked the awareness of food safety. The personal hygiene habits of the left-behind children were inferior to those of the non-behind-children. The average score of food safety and nutrition awareness was significantly lower in the left-behind children than in the non-left-behind children (53.84 vs. 58.14); moreover, the left-behind children’s attitude towards nutrition was significantly poorer than that of the non-left-behind children (P<0.05). Conclusions The current status of growth and nutrition and food safety knowledge, attitude and practice of the left-behind children in the rural areas in Hunan and Shanxi provinces is poor. The results suggest that schools should enhance the related education for the left-behind children so as to make up for the lack of family custody.
谈甜, 杨柳, 刘莉, 李杰, 彭亚拉. 农村留守与非留守儿童生长状况及营养与食品安全KAP比较研究-基于对湖南、山西两省农村地区小学生的实证分析[J]. 实用预防医学, 2017, 24(8): 1012-1016.
TAN Tian, YANG Liu, LIU Li, LI Jie, PENG Ya-la. Comparative study on growing status and nutrition and food safety knowledge, attitude and practice of rural left-behind children and non-left-behind children-based on empirical research among rural pupils in Hunan Province and Shanxi Province. , 2017, 24(8): 1012-1016.