ABSTRACT
Objective To investigating knowledge,attitudes,current behavior among primary school students on nutrition and food safety in two State-level poverty-stricken counties,and to explore the best educational model on nutrition and food safety.Methods 478 pupils at 4-6 grades were selected,using the method of stratified cluster sampling and questionnairs.Results The average score on knowledge was 18.66 ± 3.75,with the qualified rate as 61.09％ (the highest was 60.6％).The average score in the section of attitude was 5.82 ± 1.50.More than 97％ of the students agreed that it was necessary to receive knowledge on nutrition and food safety.The average score of behavior was 8.52 ± 2.56.Conclusion Rate of awareness on knowledge of nutrition and food safety had greatly improved among the students under study.Their habit tended to be more regular.However,we also noticed the gap between knowledge and behavior on this issue.
ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of nutrition and food safety educational programs on primary students from grade 4 to 6 in impoverished areas of Western China,under a school-based cluster-randomized trial.Methods Twelve primary schools were selected from 2 impoverished counties in West China and assigned to intervention or control groups,randomly,with 6 schools in each group.Self-rating knowledge,attitude and practice questionnaires were used at both baseline and final stages.Textbooks and supportive materials were designed according to the characteristics of baseline data.All students in the intervention group were treated with targeted nutrition and food safety lectures of 0.5 hour per week for 2 semesters.Generalized linear mixedeffects model was applied to fit the random effects on individual and clusters as well as to fit the fixed effect of the programs.Results Three hundred seventy-eight students from grade 4 to 6 were randomly selected at the baseline study and the differences of scores on knowledge,attitude and practice between the 2 groups were statistically insignificant (P＞0.05).No cluster was lost during the trial.In the final investigation,478 students were randomly selected at the individual level.Scores on knowledge,attitude and practice among students in the intervention group were significantly higher,when comparing to the control group (P＜0.01).At the cluster level,more schools in the intervention group showed significant changes on knowledge and practice,yet the change in attitude was less obvious.Data from the mixed-effects model demonstrated that the program served as an influential factor on scores related to knowledge after the intervention (P=0.015) but did not affect the scores on related attitude or practice (P＞0.05).Conclusion Lectures seemed to have improved the cognition of nutrition and food safety among primary students from grade 4 to 6.However,long-term observation and larger sample size were needed to evaluate the changes on attitude and practice among the students.