Incorporating the Concept of Nutrition Buddies to Improve the Knowledge of the Malaysian Healthy Plate: A Peer-Led Educational Intervention Approach.

Abstract

It has been previously reported that 79.6% of adults in Malaysia are still unaware of the Malaysian Healthy Plate. Therefore, this study aims to assess changes in undergraduates' knowledge of the Malaysian Healthy Plate following a peer-led educational intervention. Fifteen active Bachelor's in Nutrition students, also known as nutrition buddies, were required to conduct a 30-minute workshop covering three topics: the key messages of the Malaysian Healthy Plate, practical guidelines for portioning food groups according to the Malaysian Healthy Plate, and estimating portion sizes using hand measures. A total of 194 undergraduates participated in this workshop. They were asked to self-report their gender, age, ethnicity, study stream, study year, and awareness of the Malaysian Healthy Plate before the workshop began. To assess the change in knowledge resulting from the peer-led educational intervention, all participants were asked to complete nine multiple-choice questions before (pre-intervention) and after (post-intervention) the intervention. The current findings indicate that the mean knowledge score on the Malaysian Healthy Plate significantly improved (t = -8.003, p < .001), rising from 5.25 ± 2.58 at pre-intervention to 6.75 ± 2.30 at post-intervention. It is also worth highlighting that pre-intervention knowledge scores differed significantly by gender, age, study stream, and awareness of the Malaysian Healthy Plate. In contrast, post-intervention knowledge scores showed significant differences only by gender and study stream. In conclusion, incorporating nutrition buddies into a peer-led educational intervention may be cost-effective in raising awareness and potentially fostering behavioral change related to nutrition-related issues among undergraduates.