Development and Evaluation of a Nutrition Education Program on Sodium Reduction in Elementary School Students / 대한지역사회영양학회지

ABSTRACT

This study was to develop and evaluate a nutrition education program to reduce dietary sodium. The school children (218 boys, 226 girls), from 8 elementary schools in the city of Daegu, Korea, were involved in this study. This research was based on the data from two groups of elementary school children, the "education" group (n = 240), and "no-education" group (n = 204). Educational media and programs were developed to educate the education group for four weeks and were presented on the web (www.saltdown.com). After education, the preference for a non-salty taste in the education group increased 10%, compared with those who preferred a non-salty taste before education. There was a significant change away from a preference for a salty taste and a rise in the mean score for nutrition knowledge and dietary attitude in the education group compared to the no-education group (p < 0.05). This study indicates that school children can reduce their dependency on preference for a salty taste and change their high-salt dietary behavior after the education.