Intervention effect of nutrition and health education based on Trans-Theoretical Model of Behavior on the dietary behavior of children with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Objective To investigate the impact of nutrition health education based on the trans-theoretical model of behavior (TTM)on the eating behavior of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), in order to provide a basis for improving the nutritional status and eating behavior of ASD children. Methods Convenience sampling method was used to select the children who were diagnosed with ASD in the Department of Child Developmental Behavior, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from March 2023 to June 2023. In order to avoid inter-group contamination, inpatients in the second ward of the Department of Child Developmental Behavior were selected into the intervention group and the inpatients in the first ward of the Department of child developmental behavior were selected as the control group. During hospitalization, the intervention group received nutrition health education based on TTM, while the control group received conventional nutrition health education. Parents′ feeding style and children′s eating behavior were evaluated by feeding style questionnaire and children′s eating behavior questionnaire before intervention and 28 days after intervention. Results After the intervention, the instrumental score, emotional score, and control feeding method score of parents of ASD children in the intervention group decreased (t=4.920, 4.568, 2.476), while the encouraging feeding method score increased (t=4.724), and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). Moreover, scores for satiety response, food selectivity, food reaction, decreased emotional eating, excessive emotional eating, and the total score for children′s eating behavior decreased after the intervention in ASD children in the intervention group (t=2.947, 6.139, 2.718, 5.559, 5.331, 3.915, respectively), while the score for food enjoyment increased (t=3.579), with statistically significant differences (P<0.05). Conclusion The implementation of nutrition and health education based on TTM can improve parents′ feeding patterns, reduce the dietary behavior problems of ASD children, and promote their nutritional health of ASD children.

Keywords

autism spectrum disorder / nutrition and health education / eating behavior / parental feeding pattern