Nutrition knowledge status of students and the relationships to the guardians in poor rural areas of China

Objective To assess the relationship between students' nutrition knowledge and the nutrition knowledge of their guardians in poor rural areas of China.Methods Multi-stage cluster sampling method was used in Pingquan county(Hebei Province),Wufeng(Hubei),Longyang(Yunnan),Pingjiang(Hunan),Dunhua(Jilin).A questionnaire survey was conducted in 2 939 students and 2 623 guardians to study their nutrition knowledge status.Results Among the ten nutritional health knowledge questions,the guardians' correct answer rate was 21.2%-96.9%.The average score of nutrition knowledge among guardian was(6.84± 1.73).Parents' score was(7.08± 1.65),higher than other guardians (6.38± 1.96) and grandparents(5.71 ± 1.61).Students' score was (6.03± 1.75) in average.Nutrition knowledge of guardian had positive correlation with students'(r=0.360,P<0.05).The correlation coefficient between grandparents and students(r=0.520) was higher than that of parents and students(r=0.335).Conclusion The nutrition knowledge of guardian in poor rural areas needs to be improved.It is important to carry out targeted education among guardians.