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Nutritional Status and Intellectual Development of Preschool Children
Thesis Abstract:
The study was undertaken primarily to determine the relationship between the nutritional status of preschool children and their intellectual development.
Subjects of the study were 67 preschoolers from 58 households in Barangay Timugan, Los Baños, Laguna. The data were collected with the use of interview schedule, anthropometric measurement, I.Q. measurement, and one-day food weighing method.
Findings revealed that of the 67 preschoolers, 35 were males and 32 females. Average family size was 5.8. Fathers had higher educational attainment than the mothers. The mothers were high in nutritional knowledge although low in exposure to external influence.
It was also found that 76% of the children were suffering from varying degrees of malnutrition; only 19% were normal, while 5% were overweight. The preschoolers’ average I.Q. was 75.07, with 51% classified under low I.Q. Dietary intake of the children was adequate only with respect to :meat, poultry and fish” and “cereal” out of the eleven food groups recommended for adequate nutrition.
Results also disclose that the children’s dietary intake was related to sex, family income, parents’ educational attainment, mothers’ exposure to external influence and their nutritional knowledge. Children’s dietary intake was also significantly associated with nutritional status by height, weight, head and chest circumference, and I.Q. Mothers’ nutritional knowledge and family income affected the relationship between dietary intake and nutritional status by height. Age affected the relationship between I.Q. and weight, head circumference and the ratio of chest to head circumference.