Evaluation of the effect of health education interventions on nutrition-related guidelines in rural schools in Chengdu / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To explore the intervention effect of multiple nutritional health guidelines for school-aged children on the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of primary school students in Chengdu.@*Methods@#A primary school in Chengdu, which had a school canteen, was selected as the intervention school, and another similar primary school was selected as the control school. Students from the intervention school received nutritional education for six months, while the control school did not provide such intervention measures. A total of 589 students from grades 3 to 5 were selected to participate in the questionnaire survey(eligible 558, missing 31).@*Results@#Before the intervention, no significant difference was found in the rate of awareness regarding nutritional knowledge, including dietary attitudes and dietary behavior. After the intervention, the rate of awareness of nutritional knowledge and the overall awareness rate reached more than 80% in the intervention group, which was significantly higher than that observed in the control group(P<0.05). The intervention group consumed less than one type of breakfast food(26.6%), which was less than the control group(49.4%). The frequency of weekly egg and milk consumption was higher in the experimental group than in the control group. The proportion of students who consumed three or more types of vegetables daily was higher in the intervention group than in the control group. The proportion of leftovers was lower in the intervention group (15.8%) than in the control group(57.9%).@*Conclusion@#The comprehensive nutritional education based on a variety of nutritional health guidelines for school-age children can enhance students awareness of nutritional knowledge and healthier dietary behaviors.