Validity and reliability of a measure of Latina mother's nutritional self-efficacy

Background. Not only has obesity played a role in Texas adults but it is also becoming a large issue among low-income Latino children. In Latino children between 2-5 years of age, the Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance data in 1997 found the prevalence of obesity was 12 percent, highest among all ethnic groups. Children learn what and how to eat from their environment. Despite many mothers being working mothers they are still the principal caregivers and source of influence on their toddler's diet. Self-efficacy, a concept created by Albert Bandura, one's belief that one is capable of performing a behavior needed to reach an intended goal, is increasingly becoming important in nutrition and health education. This study is important to understand the degree of impact that a mother's self-efficacy will have on a child's diet. This is useful knowing if influencing a mother's self-efficacy could improve a child's diet to prevent certain public health issues such as obesity and diabetes. The purpose of this study was to examine nutrition self-efficacy of Latina mothers, focusing on sweets and beverage and if their self-efficacy impacted their child's diet. Methods. The data was collected during July-September 2008. Mothers were recruited from two federally qualified San Antonio health centers. In order to qualify, participants had to be Hispanic with children of toddler age. Mothers were informed of incentives available upon completion. The interview consisted of demographic info, a set of five self-efficacy questions repeated at completion, testing reliability and a 24-hour food recall diary asked of the participant's child's diet. Results. There were 225 mothers who participated between both clinics. The Crohnbach alpha scores for the two different times the self-efficacy questions were asked were .44 corresponding to the first time and .49 for the second time. The three most common beverages reported were milk, juice, and water. The mothers who met or gave their child more milk than recommended by the scientific community, 800mg of calcium/3 cups (24oz) set, had a higher self-efficacy score than those who did not meet the standard at all. Mothers who gave their children more juice than the standard recommends, 4-6oz for children 1-6 years of age, had slightly higher self-efficacy scores than mother's who simply met the standard. In general, the lower the mother's self-efficacy, the more sweets they gave their child and vice versa. Conclusion. This study's Kappa values were adequate and this research showed that Latina mothers did in fact have high self-efficacy. In general some of the children's diets did not reflect the current scientific nutrition recommendations. In order to improve self-efficacy and have an impact on children's diets, the scientific community has a responsibility to make recommendations that are easily understood and can be put into practice. The public health community needs to ensure that we encourage those we serve to be more active in their health and educate them about what constitutes good health and nutrition for both themselves and their children.^

Nutritional factors and the risk of cervical dysplasia

A case comparison study of 159 women was conducted to test the hypotheses that women with cervical dysplasia had a higher prevalence of low dietary intakes of carotenoids, vitamin C, and folacin than women without cervical dysplasia, and that there would be no association between the risk of having cervical dysplasia and dietary intake of retinol. Information regarding the prevalence of known risk factors for cervical dysplasia, early age at first intercourse, multiple sexual partners, early age at first pregnancy, history of having sexually transmitted diseases, cigarette smoking, and sociodemographic data was collected. Dietary intake was estimated using a 97 item quantified food frequency questionnaire designed to obtain information on consumption of all sources of retinol, carotenoids, vitamin C and folacin. Univariate analyses showed that the presence of cervical dysplasia was positively and significantly associated with all the risk factors. In analyses of the association of the dietary variables with cervical dysplasia, information on carotenoid intake was calculated in two ways, as total carotenoid intake and as intake of lycopene and other carotenoids. While there appeared to be an inverse association between the presence of cervical dysplasia and intakes of lycopene and folacin, lower intake of retinol, total carotenoids, other carotenoids (non-lycopene carotenoids) or vitamin C did not increase the risk of having cervical dysplasia. Multivariable analyses showed that, in comparison to women who usually consume 105 RE/day of lycopene, the odds of having cervical dysplasia for women who consume 31-104 RE/day and 30 RE/day or less were 1.31 and 1.66 respectively. The odds of having cervical dysplasia in women who consume 199-396 mcg/day and 198 mcg/day or less of folacin were 2.66 and 2.97 respectively as compared to women who usually consume 397 mcg/day or more. These results suggest the importance of re-evaluating existing dietary data and planning in future studies to evaluate the associations of lycopene and folacin with cervical cancer, as well as to extend these results to other diet/cancer investigations. ^