Interventional Nutrition Education Program for Sixth Grade Students in a Governmental Primary School in Giza Governorate

Abstract

Abstract Background Nutrition is a critical part of health and development. Better nutrition is related to improvement of child health, stronger immune systems, and lower risk of non-communicable diseases. Objectives the study aimed to describe knowledge, attitude and practice of sixth grade, primary school students about healthy eating habits and healthy diet and to implement and assess a nutrition education program for healthy eating habits and healthy diet. Participants and Tools An interventional study was conducted in one governmental primary school in Giza governorate and included 120 sixth grade students. The health education program was divided into three stages: Pre-intervention stage in which the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of students about healthy and unhealthy dietary habits was assessed. Then educational program was implemented and (KAP) of students was re-assessed again twice after the education session immediately and then two months later. Results Most of the children (69.6%) had fair nutrition knowledge, (23.2%) had good knowledge, while (7.2%) had poor knowledge. After the intervention, there was an improvement in nutrition knowledge score of participated students (p < 0.05) and this change was maintained after 2 months of the intervention. The total mean score percentage was (68% ± 9.8%) before intervention and had improved after 2 months of the intervention than before. The attitude of participated students had improved after intervention in relation to the concept that eating a lot of fat can make one become obese and eating a lot of sugar and sweets is harmful for health (p < 0.001) The practice had improved among the study participants after 2 months of the intervention than before intervention (80.1% ± 5.1 vs. 68.5 ± 9.8%). Conclusion School nutrition intervention programs can have a great impact on knowledge and behavior of primary school students especially if various methods of teaching and learning were applied.