Effectiveness of comprehensive nutrition interventions among primary school students in Yiwu City / 预防医学

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To a evaluate the effectiveness of comprehensive nutrition interventions among primary school students in Yiwu City, so as to provide insights into malnutrition control among children.@*Methods@#Grade 3 to 5 students were sampled from four primary schools in Yiwu City using a random cluster sampling method and randomly assigned into the intervention group and the control group. Students in the intervention group received comprehensive interventions, including nutritional health education, promotion of physical activities, nutritional meal support and creation of a nutritional campus, while students in the control group were given no interventions. The awareness of nutritional health knowledge, dietary behaviors and nutritional status were compared in students between the two groups prior to interventions and one year following interventions, and the effectiveness of interventions was evaluated using generalized estimating equations.@*Results@#Totally 879 students were enrolled. There were 440 students in the intervention group, including 243 males and 197 females, with a male to female ratio of 1︰0.81 and a mean age of (10.47±0.99) years; and there were 439 students in the control group, including 244 males and 195 females, with a male to female ratio of 1︰0.80 and a mean age of (10.35±1.02) years. Following comprehensive interventions, the awareness of “type of food”, “seven nutriments from food”, “eating at least 12 types of food daily”, “less than 6 g of daily salt intake”, “food composition in nutritional breakfast”, “nutritional labels of pure milk”, “no less than 60 min of daily exercise duration” and “too fat or too thin may threaten health” and the increase in the proportion of 3 and more types of food in breakfast were significantly higher among students in the intervention group than in the control group (all P<0.05); however, there was no statistical difference in the proportion of normal nutrition between the two groups (P>0.05).@*Conclusion@#The comprehensive nutritional interventions may effectively increase the awareness of nutrition health knowledge and improve dietary behaviors among primary school students.