Healthy eating encouragement and socio-demographic factors associated with cognitive development among pre-schoolers: a cross-sectional evaluation in Nepal.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive development in pre-schoolers through healthy eating and socio-demographic support is crucial for their later lives. We investigated healthy eating encouragement, socio-demographic factors and their association with cognitive development in pre-schoolers.

METHODS: Quantitative data were collected using a multi-stage random sampling between February and April 2021. Pre-schoolers 36 and 71 months and their primary caregivers were recruited from three local government units of Rupandehi district. We compared healthy eating encouragement, socioeconomic and demographic factors with cognitive development using t-test, one-way analysis of variance and multiple linear regression analysis to identify the predictors of the cognitive development among pre-schoolers.

RESULTS: Cognitive development in pre-schoolers is significantly positively associated with age 36-48 months (β = 0.153; 95% CI: 0.12, 13.96), living in a nuclear family (β = 0.121; 95% CI: 0.59, 6.88) and following Buddhism (β = 0.148; 95% CI: 0.88, 14.32). Conversely, children from specific caste/ethnic backgrounds, such as Dalit (β = -0.126; 95% CI: -10.79, -0.68), Janajati (β = -0.237; 95% CI: -6.14, -2.09) and non-Dalit Tarai caste or ethnicity (β = -0.133; 95% CI: -3.46, -0.25) and mothers employed (β = -0.134; 95% CI: -10.62, -1.44) show significantly lower levels of cognitive development.

CONCLUSIONS: The finding shows that socioeconomic factors have an influence on cognitive development and also stimulate the adoption of healthy eating encouragement practices.