PERCEPTION AND REALITY BEHIND NUTRITIONAL STATUS AMONG PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN KOTA BAHARU, KELANTAN, MALAYSIA

Background: High consumption of sugar-added food or beverages which is low in nutrient and high in calorie lead to an adverse effect on children general health. The objective of this study is to assess the relationship between the family socioeconomic status (SES) and nutritional status with frequency of sugar-added foods and beverages consumption of preschool children from Jabatan Kemajuan Masyarakat (KEMAS) in Kota Bharu District, Kelantan. Method: This study was conducted to determine the most significant factor that has a strong relation to the expenditure factor of a studied family. There are 219 participants from 15 TABIKA (KEMAS) in Kota Bharu, Kelantan were involved and bayesian regression approach was used as a tool to determine the most regular type of food according to their food expenditure. Results: There were no much in differences in number of male and female preschool children in this study where female were (49.3%) and male were (50.7%). Bayesian regression analysis, showed that both of variables have a significant on the p value towards expenditure factor, sweets variable with the value of and the lokchen (fast sweet foods) variable with the value of which had significantly lower (p