The low socioeconomic status of U.S. Latinos leads to health problems associated with malnutrition and obesity. The magnitude and consequences of these problems in a rapidly growing population will have tremendous future economic and social costs. Improving children's dietary habits, caretaker nutrition knowledge and self-efficacy in this population will help to alleviate these problems. Our studies with Puerto Rican children in Hartford, Connecticut suggest that Latino children consume smaller and fewer servings of fruits and vegetables than recommended. Additionally, there is a high consumption of artificial beverages and high fat snack foods. Caretaker nutrition knowledge and self-efficacy have been positively associated with dietary quality among Latino children. Those children whose caretakers consume more fruits and vegetables are also likely to have a higher fruit and vegetable intake. Among low-income Latino caretakers, those that are more confident in their ability to effectively use the food label to make food selections have children with better dietary intakes than those of caretakers who are less confident. More importantly, those who speak Spanish only are less likely to have high food label self-efficacy and nutrition knowledge. Increased efforts are needed to monitor the health and nutrition status of the Latino population and to develop culturally appropriate programs to improve nutrition knowledge, self-efficacy, and eating behavior. A challenge for the new millenium will be to build multi-agency task forces to address these issues.
Learning Objectives: Identify dietary intake behaviors of Latino children Identify key predictors of dietary intake behaviors among Latino children Discuss effective programatic methods for improving dietary intakes among Latino children
Keywords: Latinos, Nutrition
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.