Background & objectives: The aim of this study was to compare knowledge of mothers with school-age children on nutritional value and consumption of milk and dairy products in wealthy and poor urban areas of Rasht city.

Methods: In this casul-comparision study 182 mothers with school-age children (86 from wealthy and 96 from poor urban areas) were asked to complete a questionnaire of knowledge on nutritional value of milk and dairy. Obtained data were analyzed by student t for independent samples, ANOVA, Pearson correlation and regression analysis using SPSS-16 software.

Results: There is significant difference in knowledge about milk and dairy between mothers living in wealthy and poor regions (p<0.01). Knowlede of the women with different educational levels on milk and dairy products was significantly different (p<0.01). There are significant positive correlations between the three study variables (age, marriage, and number of children) and mothers' knowledge on nutritional value of milk and dairy products (p<0.01). The result of regression analysis showed that the age can predict variance of the mothers' knowledge on nutritional value of milk and dairy products.

Conclusions: Since nutritional habits and patterns formed in childhood affect the nutritional behaviors in later years, and knowledge and attitude of mothers have important role in transfering of healthy/unhealthy nutritional habits especially on milk and dairy products consumtion; the necessity of training programs of mothers about proper eating habits, especially milk and dairy products is emphesized. This will help to build healthy nutritional habits from childhood and promote the wellbeing of future generations.