Rural students’ perception and satisfaction on Nutrition Improvement Program for Rural Compulsory Education Students across different implementation areas / 中国学校卫生

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To understand rural students’ perception and satisfaction of the Nutrition Improvement Program for Rural Compulsory Education Students (NIPRCES), and to provide basis for promoting students’ participation in the school feeding program and improving the acceptability of school feeding.@*Methods@#In 3 national pilot counties and 2 local pilot counties of NIPRCES, 1 middle school and 1 primary school were randomly selected. Two classes of 2 364 students from grade 4 to grade 9 were randomly selected and investigated with questionnaires.@*Results@#Students were aware of the policy, with 78.9% of the students reported to be familiar with NIPRCES. The awareness rate of students at the national pilot areas was higher than that in local pilot areas(P<0.05). Students showed positive attitude towards NIPRCES. The median score of students’ understandings of the influence of NIPRCES was 20.0 (18.0, 20.0) points. Students in national pilot areas showed a more positive attitude toward the program than those in local pilot areas(P<0.05). Moderate satisfaction was reported in school feeding, 78.7% of students thought that school provided adequate amount of food, and 60.9% of the students enjoyed the food very much. The main reasons for leftovers were too much in amount(27.4%), repetition of food types (22.8%) and food aversions(9.2%).@*Conclusion@#Students are quite aware of NIPRCES and show moderate satisfaction in school feeding. The awareness and satisfaction are relatively higher among students in national pilot areas than those in local pilot areas. Health promoting schools should be established and students and parents should be advocated to take part in the program, health education need to be promoted in schools. Experiences sharing between different places could help improve the quality and acceptability of school feeding program.