Nutrition Education using Booklet Media with and Without Counseling and the Association with Home Food Availability and Parent Feeding Practices in Preschool Children

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Fruit and vegetable consumption among preschool children in Indonesia is lower than recommendations, which may be due to types of food availability at home and unhealthy feeding practices such as restriction and parent pressure. Providing nutrition education through booklets and counseling on healthy food (fruit and vegetable) consumption can help to provide information to parent’s thus resulting healthy behavior, compared to merely providing booklets without counseling. AIM: The aim of this study is to determine the effect of nutrition education using booklets with counseling versus without counseling on home food availability and parent feeding practices in preschool children. METHODS: A quasi-experimental study utilized a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. Sampling methods included both purposive sampling and simple random sampling. Purposive sampling was used to select Danurejan district as the sub-district with the highest obesity percentage in Yogyakarta Municipality. Meanwhile, simple random sampling was applied to select children and schools (Early Childhood Education Program Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini [PAUD] or kindergartens Taman Kanak-kanak [TK]). There were 56 people (28 intervention and 28 controls) taken from 4 PAUD/TK. The intervention group received nutrition education using booklets as well as one 30–60 min counseling session carried out at the participant’s home. The control group was provided with booklets, but did not receive counseling. The pre-test was carried out before nutrition education was given, and the post-test was conducted 30 days after the nutrition education. Fruit and vegetable availability at home were assessed using questionnaire, and parent feeding practices were assessed using the Comprehensive Food Feeding Questionnaire. The statistical tests used to assess outcomes between groups included pair t-test, Wilcoxon, Mann–Whitney, and independent t-test. RESULTS: There were increase in healthy eating guidance and monitoring before and after nutrition education was provided in the intervention group (p = 0.00; p < 0.05), but no differences were found in restriction, child control, and parent pressure (p = 0.11, p = 0.48, p = 0.28; p ≥ 0.05). There was a decrease in child control behavior before and after nutrition education in the control group (p = 0.00; p < 0.05), but there were no differences in healthy eating guidance, monitoring, restriction, and parent pressure (p = 0.17, p = 0.18, p = 0.53, 0.62; p ≥ 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Results demonstrate that using counseling in addition to nutrition education booklets can increase mother’s implementation use of healthy eating guidance and monitoring, with the potential to promote healthy weight within families.