DO SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS AFFECT NUTRITIONAL KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, AND PRACTIC AMONG HOUSEHOLDS IN SOUTH-WEST OF IRAN THE NUTRI-KAP SURVEY

Background and Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between nutritional knowledge, attitude, and practice with socio-economic status among Iranian households living in South-Western Iran in 2016. Methods: The study subjects were recruited from the Nutritional Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (NUTRI-KAP) survey, an epidemiological study carried out on 842 (492 urban and 349 rural) households who lived in Abadan, Khorramshahr, and Shadegan cities, in South-West of Iran. A multi-stage stratified sampling method was applied for data gathering by a standardized questionnaire. Socio-economic status (SES) of households was evaluated by asset index measured by household assets and number of family members computed using principal components analysis (PCA). Household asset index quintiles were defined as poorest, poor, moderate, rich, and richest to estimate the associations with KAP using analysis of variance (ANOVA), bivariate and multivariate logistic regression techniques. Results: The results of ANOVA showed that in rural but not urban households, knowledge (p<0.001) and practice (p<0.01) but not attitude scores increases with increasing the quantiles of asset index. Also, in the multivariable logistic analysis, rural households who were in the poorest quintile of asset index had 0.4 times (AOR= 0.4, CI: 0.2, 0.9; p<0.05) less likely to have a good knowledge as compared to those who were in higher quantiles after asjustment for demographic variables including age of respondent, education of householder and respondent, and occupation of householder. Conclusion: Asset index may a determinant variable for nutritional knowledge and practice in rural but not urban households living in South-Western Iran

Keywords:

Socio-economic status , Asset index , nutritional knowledge , households , South-West of Iran