INTRODUCTION:

Despite several remarkable attempts and ventures around the globe, a holistic apprehension of children’s diet and their behavioral inclination towards divergent genres of food are still a bit gloomy and associated with unexplored opacity. Significant corroborations substantiate the fact that dietary and nutritive proclivity acquired in childhood perpetuates lifelong^(1-3). In this juncture, one of the concerns is the quality of diet and supremacy of nutrition which are in a propensity of getting amalgamated with cognitive and physical development of children, leave behind a rudimentary question of being the phenomenon a friend or foe to the nutritional custom⁽⁴⁾.

In the early 1990’s, not only the European countries, but also the whole Eastern zone has experienced the tranquil assault of malnutrition on mankind expediting unavoidable loss of lives and curse of living with malnutrition directed defects. of late the problems crop up from consuming habit nourished with a nutritional transition comprising of energy rich and high calorie but low nutritive diets^{(5, 6)}. The orthodox definition of healthy food has become byzantine over the last decade as with the sensational evolution of omnipresent field of nutritional science⁽⁷⁾. Numerous components of foods have to be taken in account for determination of healthiness and particularly in this context, all important are the role of various sources such as, television, food labels, food manufacturers, health professionals in making people appreciate the complexity of meaning of nutritional diet in a lucid way^{(8, 9)}. Though it is quite evident that these multiple sources will decorate the definition of nutrition in their own distinctive ways, but as far as the genuine nutrition for the children is concerned, mothers’ cognizance regarding nutritional diets matter the most⁽¹⁰⁾. These perceptions in turn depend on the socio economic strata of life in which cost is supposed to be the strongest obstacle in both children and maternal nutrition because it is noteworthy that alterations in food prices influence food decision making. But realistically the bedrock should be on the nutritional fostering endeavors making healthy foods more accessible and thrifty as well^{(11, 12)}. Keeping the certitude in mind that malnutrition amongst the children is one of the most globally acclaimed challenging problems⁽¹³⁾; this article has embedded extensive surge and survey on mothers’ perceptions regarding nutritional diets of their off springs irrespective of socio economical stringency as this is the thought provocative domain which should never be overlooked as it bespeaks of the future of building blocks of the spine of a civilization.

MATERIALS AND METHOD:

Study Design:

This study was conducted in Barasat and Baranagar regional of Kolkata during the period of July 2015 to September 2015. The study design includes a group of mothers of school going kids from different schools of Barasat and Baranagar. The pre structured questionnaires were used to collect information regarding the awareness or knowledge base of mothers’ towards nutritious and healthy diet in the schools of Barasat and Baranagar. Irrespective of their educational identity, age, caste, community and religion they have participated whoever agreed. There was no such criteria for mothers’ to participate in this survey programme.

Sample Size:

The sample size includes 50.24% mothers’ of Barasat region from five different schools named Kidzee, Indira Gandhi Memorial High School (IGMHS, Nursery Section), Mountzion Montessori (MM), Blooming Bird and Knowledge Home School (KHS) and 49.76% mothers’ of Baranagar region from two different schools named Laugh and Learn and Humpty Dumpty.

Ethical Consideration:

The study was conducted by following all the prevailing ethical guidelines. The anonymity of the participants was kept intact and confidential. They were elucidated about the objective of the study prior to decide for the participation in the study.

RESULTS:

In this particular study total 203 mothers’ participated they were asked through questionnaires to assess their perceptions towards the nutrition and healthy diet pertaining to their children. Some of the questionnaires were excluded from this study programme due to incomplete responses. Depending upon their children age we have categorised mothers’ in four groups viz., Group A (2 to 3 years), Group B (3 to 4 years), Group C (4-5 years) and Group D (5 to 6 years) for both Barasat and Baranagar regions. We named Barasat, Baranagar as BS and BR respectively.

Fig 1. Number of participants in Barasat region

Fig 2. Number of participants in Baranagar region

Table 1. Knowledge of DHA in mothers’ of Barasat and Baranagar

Barasat (BS)	Yes	No	Baranagar (BR)	Yes	No
BS-A	1	7	BR-A	15	3
BS-B	12	14	BR-B	38	16
BS-C	14	12	BR-C	20	2
BS-D	16	26	BR-D	6	0
Sum	43	59	Sum	79	21
Mean	10.75	14.75	Mean	19.75	5.25
Std	6.70199	8.057088	Std	13.47529	7.274384
At 95%CI			At 95%CI
Upper	10.83	14.85	Upper	19.918	5.34
Lower	10.66	14.64	Lower	19.581	5.15

*DHA – Docosahexaenoic Acid

Fig 3. Knowledge of DHA in mothers’ in Barasat and Baranagar region

*DHA – Docosahexaenoic Acid

Table 2. Knowledge about health drink in mothers’ of Barasat and Baranagar

Barasat	Before 2 years	2 years onward	No	Baranagar	Before 2 years	2 years onward	No
BS-A	2	5	1	BR-A	0	18	0
BS-B	4	19	3	BR-B	2	52	0
BS-C	4	17	5	BR-C	0	22	0
BS-D	14	26	2	BR-D	0	6	0
Sum	24	67	11	Sum	2	98	0
Mean	6	16.75	2.75	Mean	0.5	24.5	0
Std	5.416	8.732	1.707	Std	1	19.553	0
At 95%CI				At 95%CI
Upper	6.06	16.85	2.83	Upper	0.51	24.74	0
Lower	5.93	16.64	2.72	Lower	0.48	24.25	0

Fig 4. Knowledge of health drink in Barasat and Baranagar region

Table 3. Knowledge about synthetic color/flavor/sweetening agent in mothers’ of Barasat and Baranagar

Barasat	Good	Ok	Harmful	No idea	Baranagar	Good	Ok	Harmful	N o idea
BS-A	0	1	6	1	BR-A	0	6	5	7
BS-B	1	0	21	4	BR-B	3	15	9	27
BS-C	0	0	19	7	BR-C	1	5	10	6
BS-D	2	3	26	11	BR-D	0	0	6	0
Sum	3	4	72	23	Sum	4	26	30	40
Mean	0.75	1	18	5.75	Mean	1	6.5	7.5	10
Std	0.957	1.414	8.524	4.272	Std	1.414	6.244	2.380	11.747
At 95%CI					At 95%CI
Upper	0.76	1.01	18.21	5.8	Upper	1.01	6.57	7.5	10.14
Lower	0.73	0.98	17.78	5.6	Lower	0.98	6.42	7.47	9.85

Fig 5. Knowledge of synthetic/flavour/sweetening agent in mothers of Barasat and Baranagar

Table 4. Knowledge about added Preservative in mothers’ of Barasat and Baranagar

Barasat	Good	Ok	Harmful	No Idea	Baranagar	Good	Ok	Harmful	No Idea
BS-A	0	1	5	1	BR-A	0	0	6	12
BS-B	1	1	15	10	BR-B	0	1	11	42
BS-C	0	2	9	13	BR-C	0	2	6	14
BS-D	2	2	17	22	BR-D	0	3	3	0
Sum	3	6	46	46	Sum	0	6	26	68
Mean	0.75	1.5	11.5	11.5	Mean	0	1.5	6.5	17
Std	0.957	0.577	5.507	8.660254	Std	0	1.290	3.316	17.776
At 95%CI					At 95%CI
Upper	0.76	1.5	11.56	11.6	Upper	0	1.51	6.54	17.22
Lower	0.73	1.49	11.43	11.39	Lower	0	1.48	6.45	16.77

Fig 6. Knowledge of added preservative in mothers’ of Barasat and Baranagar

Table 5. Knowledge of reading Label before selection in mothers’ of Barasat and Baranagar

Barasat	Yes	No	Baranagar	Yes	No
BS-A	7	1	BR-A	18	0
BS-B	19	7	BR-B	53	1
BS-C	17	19	BR-C	21	1
BS-D	24	18	BR-D	6	0
Sum	67	45	Sum	98	2
Mean	16.75	11.25	Mean	24.5	0.5
Std	7.135592	8.732125	Std	20.07486	0.57735
At 95%CI			At 95%CI
Upper	16.75	11.35	Upper	24.7	0.5
Lower	16.66	11.14	Lower	24.24	0.49

Table 7. Knowledge of reading Lable before selection in mothers of Barasat and Baranagar

DISCUSSION:

If we consider DHA, the mothers’ belongs to Baranagar region shows better awareness compare to Barasat region as 79% and 42% mothers’ respectively declare their Knowledge positively. Almost 98% and 66% mothers’ from Baranagar and Barasat respectively introduced health drinks to their children after the age of 2 years. As most of the container of Health drinks suggested starting age 2 years in label, in this case also mothers’ of Baranagar are more aware than Barasat. Regarding synthetic colour, flavour and sweetening agents mothers’ of Barasat shows better understanding as 71% mentioned these are harmful to health whereas only 30% mothers’ of Baranagar feel the same. The perception towards added preservative, mothers’ of Barasat are more conscious to mothers’ of Baranagar as

they consider these are harmful to health 45% and 26% respectively. Good attitude reflected regarding the habit of reading label before selection of any item in the mothers’ of Baranagar. As 98% and 60% mothers’ admitted that they read label before selection in Baranagar and Barasat region respectively.

Significance of Confidence Interval:

As per the prevailing data which lie within the acceptance region of predefined confidence interval, has the significant consequences and has also properly identified the influence of the mother’s literacy towards the health awareness (health drinks, additives and preservatives). It reflects that the mother’s awareness towards health is the way to raise the quality of diet consumed by the school going kids.

CONCLUSION:

In this study, it is apparent that mothers in the samples selected from Barasat and Baranagar regional of Kolkata, currently have a below average knowledge and perceptions regarding child nutrition and healthy diet. Based on the analysis, the reason for such results may be due to low literacy or education rate compared to developed countries like the United States, fairly average knowledge related to child health care, negligence due to increase in the number of office going mothers, unavailability of certain health products, family income. Besides these, a developing country like India is still lagging behind the developed countries due to possessing superstitious beliefs that affect food habit of children a plenty. This sort of survey that has been carried out in this article may enlighten the mothers’ perception regarding nutritive diet towards their children which may act in a positive way to our society.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

The authors have no conflict of interest.

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Received on 04.11.2015 Accepted on 05.12.2015

Asian J. Pharm. Res. 5(4): October- December, 2015; Page 169-174

DOI: 10.5958/2231-5691.2015.00026.X