Effect of nutrition knowledge on dietary attitude and self‐efficacy of senior elementary school students

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of nutritional knowledge on dietary attitude, eating behavior, and dietary self‐efficacy in elementary school children in Incheon, Korea to improve nutrition education in a practical class. To the question of nutritional knowledge, most students answered ‘little knowledge’. Their information resources on nutrition knowledge were from ‘TV, radio, books (except text books)’, ‘internet’, and ‘class of school’ in order. In terms of the nutritional knowledge, the mean awareness was 82.6%, and the mean accuracy was 84.6%. There was a significant difference among the level of nutritional knowledge, the sources of nutritional knowledge, and the awareness of knowledge (p<0.001, p<0.05). Regarding the questions on ‘reduced‐fat or fat‐free food and body weight’, ‘obesity and adult disease’, and ‘taking vitamins’, girls showed significantly higher scores than boys (p<0.001). The average score of eating behavior was 40.98 out of 55. The question about ‘brushing teeth’ showed a significant gender difference (p<0.001). Boys were more punctual than girls in having a dinner (p<0.001). The reason for skipping breakfast was because they were too busy in the morning. The dietary self‐efficacy scored 71.11 out of 90. Girls’ scores were significantly higher than boys’ (p<0.05). Nutritional knowledge affected the elementary school students on their dietary attitude (p<0.01), eating behavior (p<0.01), and self‐efficacy (p<0.001). In conclusion, accessible and continuous dietary education help improve dietary attitude, eating behavior, dietary self‐efficacy as well as nutritional knowledge of students. Dietary education at an elementary school should consist of various well‐organized programs to improve appropriate dietary attitude, eating behavior, and dietary self‐efficacy.Grant Funding Source: Inha University