Parental perceptions of child's healthy diet: Evidence from a rapidly developing country

Mohamed A Hendaus; Walid El Ansari; Samar Magboul; Ola AlHalabi; Maram Sati; Hebat Kamal; Ahmed H Alhammadi

doi:10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1252_19

Parental perceptions of child's healthy diet: Evidence from a rapidly developing country

J Family Med Prim Care. 2020 Sep 30;9(9):4949-4955. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1252_19. eCollection 2020 Sep.

Authors

Mohamed A Hendaus^{1

2

3}, Walid El Ansari^{4

5

6}, Samar Magboul², Ola AlHalabi⁷, Maram Sati⁷, Hebat Kamal⁷, Ahmed H Alhammadi^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, Section of Academic General Pediatrics, Sidra Medicine, Doha, Qatar.
² Department of Pediatrics, Hamad General Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
³ Department of Clinical Pediatrics, Weill- Cornell Medicine, Doha, Qatar.
⁴ Department of Surgery, Hamad General Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
⁵ College of Medicine, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.
⁶ School of Health and Education, University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden.
⁷ Pediatric Residency Program, Hamad General Corporation, Doha, Qatar.

Abstract

Background: There are no studies in Qatar or in the Middle East to investigate parental perception of healthy diet in childhood.

Purpose: To investigate parental perception of childhood healthy diet in the State of Qatar.

Methods: Cross-sectional prospective study at Hamad Medical Corporation, State of Qatar. Parents of children <14 years old were invited to complete a questionnaire.

Results: A total of 398 parents agreed to participate, while 22 parents refused (response rate 94%). About 80% of parents were between 20 and 39 years of age, and 77% were females. Around 230 (58%) parents had ≥1 housemaid to help with housework, including food preparation. Whilst 151 children (37%) fell into the overweight and obese category, only 68 parents (17%) perceived that their child was in this category. Less than half the participants (n = 179, 45%) stated that childhood weight should be monitored prior to 5 years of age, while around 35% stated the same, but for children ages 5-14 years. Most participants (n = 324, 81%) agreed that parental eating habits could influence childhood weight. In terms of food preparation at home, mothers cooked almost 50% of the times, housemaids 30%, followed by grandmothers (16.6%), and fathers (3.4%). When asked about the frequency of school meals being prepared at home, 237 parents (60%) prepared their children's lunch box only 1-2 times per week. Moreover, 63% of parents chose the quality of food based on nutritional values, while 44% and 35% chose it based on safety and taste, respectively. When queried about whether the child's pediatrician or the primary care physician counsel families regarding childhood healthy diet, 187 families (47%) had not received counseling by their children's health care providers. Most families agreed that healthy diets lead to better school performance (n = 372, 94%) and better physical activity quality (n = 379, 96%). Compared to families living in the rural areas, parents living in the capital Doha had better insights that healthy diets result in better in school performance (p = 0.032).

Conclusion: Parental perception is an important target for public health interventions. Within the current sample, families were aware of the positive impact of healthy diet on overall wellbeing. Qatar is a well-resourced country and it would be cost effective to train and professionally develop pediatricians and primary care physicians to be more proactive in tackling childhood obesity.

Keywords: Children; Qatar; healthy diet; parental perception.