The role of meal patterns and parental education on the weight and height of preschool children

Directly or indirectly more than half of childhood mortalities may be related to malnutrition. According to UNICEF announcement, the partial importance of underlying malnutrition causes should be widely identified in households, populations and countries and for more consideration of malnutrition causes, a completely local or regional approach is needed rather than national or international solutions. In this study, the association between parent's education level and children meals intake status with their weight and height was determined. In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, 235 preschool children participated in preschool health screening plan in Khomei, Iran, were selected by systematic randomized sampling in city and clustering method in villages. Information about parent's education level and children meals intake status was taken by questionnaire. 58% of children had inappropriate meals intake, which was not different in sex groups and urban and rural areas (P = 0.568, P = 0.221). The mean value of weight and height in children whom parents had higher educational level, were higher significantly than those with lower educational level (r = 0.29 for height, r = 0.31 for weight, for mothers, P < 0.01). The mean value of weight and height in children with better meal pattern were significantly higher than those with inappropriate meal pattern (P < 0.001). Weight to height ratio (WHR) in children with high educated parents was higher than those with low educated parents (r = 0.28, for mother education and r = 0.27, for father education, P < 0.01). It seems that a serious revision in preschool age group nutritional program and presenting proper nutritional patterns is essential for this group of children. Health care providers and education sectors in our country should design and implement educational programs related to children's health for families, especially for mothers.