Impact of a nutrition education programme on the nutrition knowledge of primary school children

Abstract

The objective of this study was to ascertain nutrition knowledge amongst primary school children in an informal settlement in Gauteng, South Africa. A nutrition knowledge questionnaire was developed and tested for internal reliability using Cronbach Alpha methods. Pre- and postintervention tests were completed with experimental and control groups. Long-term tests were completed with the experimental group. Data were analysed descriptively using SPSS, version 17.0. The Nutrition Education Programme (NEP) was implemented over nine hours, with seven hours for teaching the information in the activity book and completion of the relevant activities, and two hours for the games, over nine sessions. An immediate improvement in nutrition knowledge amongst the experimental group (13.4 percent), from pre- (45.4 percent) to postintervention (58.8 percent) was achieved. Retention of knowledge was present in 21 out of 38questions, with only two remaining unchanged. The retention on nutrition knowledge was evident. It is recommended that a method needs to be determined to encourage continuous revision of nutrition information in order to support future planning and training. Further studies need to be carried out to determine the impact on dietary behaviour and examine if there is any link between certain dietary practices and related nutrition knowledge.Keywords: Nutrition knowledge, retention, impact, dietary behavior, children.