Abstract
Consumption of unhealthy snack foods among young children in low-and-middle-income countries is high and Nepal is no exception. A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among 259 students to investigate their snacking behaviors and examine factors that influence the behavior from a socio-ecological Framework. The study used self-reported questionnaires, food recall diaries, and participant observation forms to collect data. Students' snacking behavior was the dependent variable where as age, sex, grade, parent's education, parent's sources of income, religion, ethnicity, family type, and living arrangements were the independent variables. Chi-square test and logistic regression were applied to analyze the results. The main findings of the study indicate that 89 percent of students consumed school snacks regularly, including unhealthy snacks, which were either commercially prepared junk foods bought from nearby vending shops and grocery stores or deep-oil-fried snacks food prepared at the school canteen. Bivariate analysis shows that age, grade, father's education, and the student's religion were significantly associated with snacking behaviors of students. The multivariate analysis indicates that grade (aOR= 0.259, P < .05) and religion (aOR= 0.373, P < .05) were the significant predictors. The snacking behaviors among basic level students are influenced by multilevel factors, which is consistent with the socio-ecological model. The study's findings further suggest that comprehensive and effective school-based nutrition education interventions are necessary to promote healthy snack consumption behaviors of students.
Highlights
In collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), the government of Nepal is implementing a day snack service known as school feeding in the selected districts that have had low human development indices since 2009.1 This programme reached over 600,000 school children at the basic school education in 2017
The inclusion criteria guiding the selection of the primary action research school was as follows: schools having multi-ethnic groups of students including indigenous and disadvantaged groups; motivated teachers willing to engage in action research; an active and functional school management committee, parent-teacher association and child clubs;right place for school gardening, and willingness to apply human urine as fertilizer on the school garden were the criteria used to select the school to implement the project interventions.Though there were 304 basic level students according to the Education Management and Information System (EMIS) record of the school in 2018/19,only 259 volunteered to participate in the study
Out of the total of 259 students, based on the results obtained from food diaries in table 1, close to 90 percent of students reported that they consumed school snacks regularly during a week at the time of the survey, while more than one in ten (11.4%) skipped their regular snacks.The students consumed various items as midday school snacks
Summary
In collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), the government of Nepal is implementing a day snack service known as school feeding in the selected districts that have had low human development indices since 2009.1 This programme reached over 600,000 school children at the basic school education in 2017. In the year 2020/2021, the school feeding program was launched for all children studying from early child development(ECD) to grade five This program played a crucial role in increasing children's academic and nutritional outcomes.[1, 2] this programme has yet to expand to the higher grades nationwide.The Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP) and the Ministry of Education and Sports (MOES) jointly endorsed the National School Health and Nutrition Strategy (NSHNS) in 2006. It aimed to improve school children's health and nutritional behavior through skill-based health education and nutrition services at schools, based on Focusing Resources on Effective School Health (FRESH) approach. This strategy is streamlined with the international commitments laid out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) SDG-2,'end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture' and SDG-3,'ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages'.6
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