Impact of a Short Nutrition Education Program on Food and Nutrition Knowledge of School-Age Children Graduating from Elementary School: A Follow-Up Study 1995–2000, Chillán, Chile

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the impact of a nutrition education program (NEP) on food and nutrition knowledge (FNK) of a representative sample of 283 elementary school graduates in Chillán, Chile. A comparative study of two groups was carried out: the Control Group (CG, n = 134) and the Experimental Group (participating in the NEP) (EG, n = 149) paired by sex, age, intellectual ability (IA), and socioeconomic stratum. Results showed that in the EG, the NEP had a positive and significant impact on FNK scores, which significantly increased from the pre-test to the post-test. In retests completed both 3 months and 5 years after the NEP had been completed a slight significant decrease was observed, but FNK scores remained quite high. These findings point out the significant impact of the NEP on FNK and may be useful as a model for nutrition education programs designed to improve the food and nutrition knowledge of the school-age population. Michelaine D. Salgado’s thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master on Public Health degree. Presented in part at the II Conferencia Latinoamericana de Promoción de la Salud y Educación de la Salud, Santiago, Chile, October 13–17, 1996 and the XI Congreso Latinoamericano de Nutricionistas-Dietistas, Montevideo, Uruguay, November 16–20, 1998. The authors are very gratefully to the Ministry of Education of Chile for the facilities provided to carry out this research; to the research direction from University of Bío-Bío, Chile, Grant 992916-3; to Oscar Brunser, MD, and to Prof. Patricia Arancibia, PhD, for helpful comments and suggestions; to Mr. Francisco Rodriguez and to Ms. Claudia Illanes, from University of Bío-Bío, for their computational assistance.