Development and implementation of a nutrition education programme for school-going adolescents in the context of double burden of malnutrition: a narrative essay.

Abstract

The early prevention of non-communicable diseases in Cameroon schools program was initiated in 2018 to address the alarming trend of obesity among adolescents through a nutrition education intervention aimed at increasing knowledge on nutrition and the benefits of healthy eating and physical activity. The program included: school surveys to document eating habits and health-risky behaviors in students, the development of a training curriculum, training and sensitization sessions for school staff, school vendors and students, and advocacy meetings with parliamentarians and mayors. We carried out a quasi-experimental study to assess the effect of the intervention on the student's knowledge and eating behavior three months after the training sessions. We compared the knowledge of a sample of students from five schools that were part of the program (IG) to that of students that were not (CG). The mean (±SD) score was 14.4/20 (±2.1) and 9.7/20 (±2.7) for IG and CG, respectively (p<0.001). Those who scored above 12/20 accounted for 89.8% of IG vs 23.8% of CG (p<0.001). Other significant achievements of this program are the amendment of the National School Hygiene Policy to include compulsory training in food hygiene and nutrition education for school canteen vendors and the integration of nutrition education sensitization sessions into the routine activities of school healthcare. The study showed that a well-structured multi-sectoral nutritional education program could be the bedrock to improve healthy nutrition among adolescents, thereby serving as a vehicle for non-communicable disease prevention.