Kartlegging av ernæringskunnskap hos barnehageansatte i Trondheim

Abstract

Background: Approximately 90 % of the Norwegian children spend most of the day in kindergarten, and several meals are consumed there per day. The employees are responsible for a significant part of the children's diet, and for their development of good dietary habits. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine whether kindergarten employees have adequate nutrition knowledge reflecting National Recommendations and Guidelines for food and meals in kindergarten. Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among kindergartens in Trondheim. The survey was performed by questionnaire. All the 256 kindergartens in Trondheim were invited to participate, and 115 kindergartens chose to attend. The participating kindergartens received a visit from a nutritionist by arrangement for completion of the questionnaire. A total score calculated for each participant was used to compare different subgroups in terms of level of nutrition knowledge. Univariate Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test whether independent variables has effect on the participants total score, and to test for differences in total score between different subgroups. Results: The survey achieved a participation of 45 % and a response rate of 95 % of the kindergartens participating. The survey shows varying degrees of knowledge related to different recommendations and guidelines for nutrition in children. The variables "occupation"(p = ˂0.001), "mat og matgledekurs" (p = 0.007), "regulatory management" (p = 0,001) and “health and nutrition related education" (p= 0.047) had a significant effect on the total score among private and public kindergartens. Conclusions: The nutritional knowledge among daycare staff in Trondheim reflects the National Recommendations and Guidelines for food and meals in kindergarten to a moderate degree. The level of knowledge can pose challenges in terms of satisfaction of the guidelines and recommendations. Relevance The nutritional knowledge is essential among the staff in day care to promote good eating habits, good health, and to prevent malnutrition and disease. However, no study has investigated the knowledge among the kindergarten staff concerning the National Recommendations and Guidelines for food and meals in kindergarten. Therefor there is a lack of knowledge related to whether employees can satisfy the nutritional requirements of the children.