Nutrition knowledge and its relation with dietary behaviour in children and adolescents: a systematic review

Abstract

Objectives: This review explored the relationship between knowledge among children and adolescents and their dietary behaviour.

Content: Potentially eligible original research articles were identified through a systematic search in PubMed, SCOPUS, Web of Science and WHO Virtual Health Library from 2000 to 2018. From the initial search, a total of 7,258 research articles were obtained. Duplicate studies were identified and removed. Observational studies on children and adolescents (5-19 years) of any gender, ethnicity and country were included in which the outcome measured was either a scoring of/ association between nutrition knowledge and practices. After screening using the inclusion criteria, 13 studies were selected for this paper.

Summary and outlook: Four studies reported non-significant association between overall nutrition knowledge and practices. Only two studies found a significant association, out of which one showed a weak association highlighting that nutrition knowledge is not sufficient to result in healthy eating. Other factors which showed significant but weak associations with knowledge/practices included age, gender, nutritional status and lifestyle, peer influence, parents'/guardians' knowledge, education and occupation level. The causal relationship couldn't be examined in the present review due to the cross-sectional nature of the studies. Besides imparting knowledge through nutrition education interventions, there is a need for holistic behaviour change strategies including supporting food skills like menu planning, food shopping and cooking to encourage healthy eating habits among children. These interventions should target children from an early age, involving family/parents, teachers and peers to facilitate improvement in the food environment for sustainable change.

Keywords: behaviour change; eating behaviour; food environment; food skills; nutrition education.