Evaluation of Nutrition Education Program among Egyptian Adolescents School Children (11-14 years old) | ||
| The Egyptian Journal of Community Medicine | ||
| Article 6, Volume 33, Issue 4, October 2015, Pages 67-79 PDF (597.36 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/ejcm.2015.698 | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Background: Consequences of malnutrition can be prevented by starting healthy lifestyle habits among school children as early as possible. School based interventions may play a great role in promoting and enhancin0. g healthy habilts among them. Yet, there is a lack, of published data about the extent of knowledge about nutrition and physical activity among Egyptian school children. Objective: The main objectives of this study were to evaluate the baseline information of targeted school children regarding nutrtion knowledge, and to assess changes in nutrition knowledge before and after application of nutrition education program. Methods: Pre-post study was carried out by a team of National Nutrition Institute in 2011. Four preparatory govermental schools were selected using purposive non probability sampling. Sample size was 320 students. Data were collected using a self adminstered questionnaire that was completed at pre and post intervention. The intervention program was run along 5 weeks and included five sessions encompassing several topics related to nutrition. Several teaching strategies and activities were used during the intervention such as small group discusions, group works, nutrition exhibition and others. Results: Only 3.3 percent of studied sample scored fair (50-75% of answers were correct ) in pre intervention (all sessions combined) , however the percentage increased to 50.6% after application of the intervention (P< 0.0001). The percentages of overweight and obese in the studied sample were 17.0% and 10.9% respectively. There was a significant increase in mean score of knowledge post intervention compared to pre intervention in each session and in all sessions combined in both male and female students. Conclusion: this study has shown that a school nutrition intervention program could have positive effects on adolescent‟s school children. In addition, the utilization of different teaching and learning strategies such as group discussion on nutrition topics, demonstrations, nutrition contents, games and other methods may enhance the learning process of the students and increase their awarness towards healthy nutritional behavior. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Adolescents; Nutrition knowledge; school intervention | ||
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