Néophobie et préférences alimentaires chez les enfants agés de 5 à 10 ans

Abstract

The aim of this work is study the food neophobia in old children from 5 to 10 years of the commune of Constantine. The population of study is targeted with the children provided education in the primary establishments; 784 pupils are included in this study whose 395 pupils are girls and 389 pupils are boys. Two questionnaires were used to evaluate the level of the neophobia and the food preferences of the children with an anthropometric catch of measurement. The principal results indicate that the old children from 5 to 10 years are less neophobic. The girls and the boys have significantly the same mean score of food neophobia. However the girls tend to be more neophobic. The 5 years old children have a weakest mean score of food neophobia, while the old ones of 8-10 years have a highest mean score of neophobia comparing with the other ages. Practically we did not find a significant difference between the neophobia scores of the children depending on their ponderal state. The rate of recognition of the food groups is high (more than 70 percent), the quince, the grapefruit, the pumpkin, the Gruyere, the shrimp, ketchup and mustard are the food which less recognized. The boys significantly prefer pears, leben, rice, hamburger and the pizza more than the girls. No significant difference is announced between the hedonic scores of the girls and the boys for the food groups. The boys prefer more vegetables, dairy products, seasonings and starchy foods that the girls. The 5 years old children have a weak preference towards vegetables in particular the beet, the spinach, the pumpkin and the zucchini. Whereas they mark a preference towards the chocolate and the harissa that those old of 8-10 years. The old children of 6-7 years prefer the dairy products, sweetened and fat more than the other ages. We did not find a significant difference between the children hedonic scores of the food groups by ponderal state