The effects of nutrition education on nutritional knowledge and dietary behaviours in primary school students in Zhongshan city

IF 2.9 3区医学 Q3 NUTRITION & DIETETICS

Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics Pub Date : 2024-06-30 DOI:10.1111/jhn.13343

Xinxue Yu, Xiaoxia Huang, Xiaoping Liang, Qian Ou, Liuqiao Sun, Jieru Ren, Qiongmei Wu, Hangjun Chen, Qiaoli Huang, Hanqing Zhao, Jun Wei, Feng Wu, Sizhe Huang, Lijun Wang

{"title":"The effects of nutrition education on nutritional knowledge and dietary behaviours in primary school students in Zhongshan city","authors":"Xinxue Yu, Xiaoxia Huang, Xiaoping Liang, Qian Ou, Liuqiao Sun, Jieru Ren, Qiongmei Wu, Hangjun Chen, Qiaoli Huang, Hanqing Zhao, Jun Wei, Feng Wu, Sizhe Huang, Lijun Wang","doi":"10.1111/jhn.13343","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n \n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Background</h3>\n \n <p>Adequate nutritional knowledge and healthy dietary behaviours are essential for promoting rational nutrition for children. However, lack of nutritional knowledge and unhealthy dietary behaviours are common among Chinese children. Therefore, we developed a school-based nutrition education (NE) program to assess its impacts on nutritional knowledge and dietary behaviours in pupils.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Methods</h3>\n \n <p>In this trial, one school was assigned as an intervention group (<i>n</i> = 199) and the other two schools were designated as a control group (<i>n</i> = 140). Children in the intervention group received the NE program in addition to their regular health curriculum, whereas the control group continued with their usual health curriculum without any NE program materials.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Results</h3>\n \n <p>Concerning nutritional knowledge, the mean difference (follow-up minus baseline) of average knowledge scores in the intervention group was significantly higher than that in the control group (1.99 ± 3.22 vs. 0.66 ± 3.60, <i>p</i> = 0.001). However, subgroup analysis revealed that this difference disappeared among boys and students with malnutrition status. Regarding dietary behaviours, the NE program significantly increased the proportion of children exhibiting high frequencies of meat and nuts consumption in the intervention group, along with diverse food choice at breakfast. Additionally, it markedly reduced the proportion of children exhibiting high frequencies of sugar-sweetened beverages and fast food consumption. Structural equation modelling analyses indicated a significant direct effect of NE intervention on nutritional knowledge and an indirect effect on dietary behaviours.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Conclusions</h3>\n \n <p>The NE program effectively enhanced nutritional knowledge scores and further improved dietary behaviours among Chinese primary school students. Future NE programs should pay more attention to boys and children with malnutrition.</p>\n </section>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":54803,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics","volume":"37 5","pages":"1361-1373"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jhn.13343","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"NUTRITION & DIETETICS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Adequate nutritional knowledge and healthy dietary behaviours are essential for promoting rational nutrition for children. However, lack of nutritional knowledge and unhealthy dietary behaviours are common among Chinese children. Therefore, we developed a school-based nutrition education (NE) program to assess its impacts on nutritional knowledge and dietary behaviours in pupils.

Methods

In this trial, one school was assigned as an intervention group (n = 199) and the other two schools were designated as a control group (n = 140). Children in the intervention group received the NE program in addition to their regular health curriculum, whereas the control group continued with their usual health curriculum without any NE program materials.

Results

Concerning nutritional knowledge, the mean difference (follow-up minus baseline) of average knowledge scores in the intervention group was significantly higher than that in the control group (1.99 ± 3.22 vs. 0.66 ± 3.60, p = 0.001). However, subgroup analysis revealed that this difference disappeared among boys and students with malnutrition status. Regarding dietary behaviours, the NE program significantly increased the proportion of children exhibiting high frequencies of meat and nuts consumption in the intervention group, along with diverse food choice at breakfast. Additionally, it markedly reduced the proportion of children exhibiting high frequencies of sugar-sweetened beverages and fast food consumption. Structural equation modelling analyses indicated a significant direct effect of NE intervention on nutritional knowledge and an indirect effect on dietary behaviours.

Conclusions

The NE program effectively enhanced nutritional knowledge scores and further improved dietary behaviours among Chinese primary school students. Future NE programs should pay more attention to boys and children with malnutrition.

查看原文本刊更多论文

营养教育对中山市小学生营养知识和膳食行为的影响。

背景：充足的营养知识和健康的饮食行为对促进儿童合理营养至关重要。然而，营养知识的缺乏和不健康的饮食行为在中国儿童中十分普遍。因此，我们开发了一个以学校为基础的营养教育（NE）项目，以评估其对学生营养知识和饮食行为的影响：在本次试验中，一所学校被指定为干预组（n = 199），另外两所学校被指定为对照组（n = 140）。干预组的儿童在学习常规健康课程的同时接受营养教育课程，而对照组的儿童则继续学习常规健康课程，不使用任何营养教育课程材料：结果：在营养知识方面，干预组平均知识得分的平均差（随访减去基线）明显高于对照组（1.99 ± 3.22 vs. 0.66 ± 3.60，p = 0.001）。然而，分组分析表明，男生和营养不良学生的这一差异消失了。在饮食行为方面，干预组中高频率食用肉类和坚果的儿童比例以及早餐食物选择多样化的儿童比例在 NE 项目中均有显著提高。此外，该计划还显著降低了儿童高频率饮用含糖饮料和食用快餐的比例。结构方程模型分析表明，NE干预对营养知识有显著的直接影响，对饮食行为有间接影响：结论：营养教育项目有效提高了中国小学生的营养知识得分，并进一步改善了他们的饮食行为。未来的NE项目应更多地关注男童和营养不良儿童。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics 医学-营养学

CiteScore

5.30

自引率

15.20%

发文量

133

审稿时长

6-12 weeks

期刊介绍： Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics is an international peer-reviewed journal publishing papers in applied nutrition and dietetics. Papers are therefore welcomed on: - Clinical nutrition and the practice of therapeutic dietetics - Clinical and professional guidelines - Public health nutrition and nutritional epidemiology - Dietary surveys and dietary assessment methodology - Health promotion and intervention studies and their effectiveness - Obesity, weight control and body composition - Research on psychological determinants of healthy and unhealthy eating behaviour. Focus can for example be on attitudes, brain correlates of food reward processing, social influences, impulsivity, cognitive control, cognitive processes, dieting, psychological treatments. - Appetite, Food intake and nutritional status - Nutrigenomics and molecular nutrition - The journal does not publish animal research The journal is published in an online-only format. No printed issue of this title will be produced but authors will still be able to order offprints of their own articles.