Mohamed, Siti Fathiah
(2022)
Diet quality and predictor factors of body weight status among children with learning disabilities in Kelantan.
Masters thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Abstract
Evidence suggests that children with Learning Disabilities (LD) have unhealthy
Body Weight Status (BWS) and poor dietary patterns. A cross-sectional study was
conducted to determine the diet quality and the predictors of Body Mass Index (BMI)
of LD children. This study recruited LD children who attended the Special Education
Integration Program from nine schools located in districts with high, moderate and low
socio-economic status in Kelantan. Parents completed a Malay language self-administered
questionnaire on demographic and socio-economic background, child’s
feeding problems, food frequency questionnaire and comprehensive parental feeding
practices. Height and weight of children were measured by researcher to determine
BWS. Diet quality was assessed using The Malaysian Healthy Eating Index. Multiple
linear regression analysis was applied to test the research hypothesis. A total of 259
children with LD aged 10.54±1.69 years (68.0% males, 32.0% females) participated
in this study. Their average BMI was 18.38±4.79 kg/m2; males (18.79±4.76 kg/m2)
had significantly higher BMI than females (17.52±4.77 kg/m2), p= 0.046. The
prevalence of underweight, thin and severely thin were 11.9%, while 28.1% were
overweight and obese. The diet quality average score was 48.15±9.23%, where 40.5%
of the children were at risk of poor diet quality. The total daily energy intake was
1831.96±542.15 kcal with a mean carbohydrate intake (241.80±74.75g), protein intake
(76.10±25.54g) and fat intake (63.42±21.33g), respectively. Majority of children had a higher score for the occurrence of rapid eating (2.00±1.32), food refusal (1.47±1.35),
and food selectivity (1.26±1.13) during mealtimes in the past six months. Parental
feeding practice including pressure to eat (Beta =-0.282), restriction of weight control
(Beta =0.351) and modelling (Beta =-0.162), child age (Beta =0.222), and childbirth
weight (Beta =0.137) were significantly related to BMI (R=0.561, R2=0.315; F(5,217)
=19.972, p<0.001). The current findings suggested that early detection of nutrition
issues in children with LD and regular positive feeding practice by parents during
mealtime is essential to address the poor nutritional status of LD children.
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