Nutritional Knowledge and Food Consumption of Adolescent Students in Junior High Schools in a Rural Community in the Eastern Region of Ghana

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between adolescents’ nutritional knowledge and food consumption in Junior High Schools in Asiakwa in the Eastern Region of Ghana at the third term of 2017/2018 academic year. It adopted the Knowledge Attitude and Practice (KAP) Model Theory postulated by Schwartz (1976) where a descriptive survey design was used to collect quantitative data through a structured questionnaire and ten (10) objective test items all from 236 participants using the purposive and proportionate stratified random sampling techniques. With the aid of the version 22 Statistical Product for Service Solution (SPSS), descriptive (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics, Pearson Product Moment correlation were used to analyze the data. The study revealed that 54.9% of the adolescent students’ had fair nutritional knowledge, with 40.5% having good knowledge and 4.6% having poor knowledge. It was discovered that generally, adolescent students’ exhibited snacking habits as snacks and sweets were predominantly consumed (M=3.48, SD=1.59) followed by starchy roots and plantain (M=3.40, SD=1.45), cereals and grains (M=3.16, SD=1.36), animal and animal products (M=3.08, SD=1.47), fat and oil (M=2.93, SD=1.48), legumes (M=2.73, SD=1.42), with fruits and vegetables (M=2.69, SD=1.55) being the least consumed food. Besides, the study discovered that there is a small but significant positive relationship between the adolescent students nutritional knowledge and food consumption (r=0.112, p=0.074, 2-tailed). Based on these results, it was recommended that school authorities and Home Economics teachers should organize nutrition education programmes aimed at improving knowledge and awareness so as to heighten good food consumption among adolescent students’ in Asiakwa.