The Effects of a Nutritional Education Package Titled "Eat a Rainbow Every Day" on Eating Behaviors and Physical Activity of Elementary School Children
Background: In school age children, a healthy nutritional behavior can prevent double burden of malnutrition and chronic diseases. Nutritional education has a key role in adopting a healthy lifestyle. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational package on the nutritional knowledg...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services
2023-11-01
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| Series: | Journal of Nutrition and Food Security |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://jnfs.ssu.ac.ir/article-1-552-en.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797524481993867264 |
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| author | Mahdieh Sheikhi Seyed Mehdi Tabatabaei Monir Eftekharinia Maryam Zaboli |
| author_facet | Mahdieh Sheikhi Seyed Mehdi Tabatabaei Monir Eftekharinia Maryam Zaboli |
| author_sort | Mahdieh Sheikhi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: In school age children, a healthy nutritional behavior can prevent double burden of malnutrition and chronic diseases. Nutritional education has a key role in adopting a healthy lifestyle. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational package on the nutritional knowledge and practices, physical activity (PA), and body mass index (BMI) of elementary school children in Zahedan, southeast Iran. Methods: In this quasi-experimental before-after study, a total of 734 elementary school children, aged 10–14 years, recruited by census sampling method completed the survey. Each student received 8 hours of training and they were provided with a booklet that included a weekly chart for recording intake of food groups and PA by students for 3 months. A semi-structured questionnaire that included questions on the students' nutritional knowledge, eating behavior, PA performance, and BMI before and after the intervention was used for data collection. Paired t-test, McNemar's, and Friedman tests were used for data analysis. Results: Before the intervention, the mean score of nutritional knowledge was 7.5 and the prevalence of underweight and overweight/obesity was 17.4% and 0.4%, respectively. After the intervention, the results showed a significant increase in the nutritional knowledge scores, the number of days with 30 min PA per week, and the frequency of consumption of dairy products, animal protein, and fruits. Also, in comparison with before intervention, a significant decrease was found in the prevalence of underweight and overweight/obesity of school children after the intervention. Conclusion: This multifaceted nutritional education intervention was associated with improved nutritional knowledge score, PA, and being underweight in elementary school children.
Corresponding Author:Seyed Mehdi Tabatabaei
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T08:58:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fe7dfa2b87f44512b432694a2486c9a1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2476-7417 2476-7425 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T08:58:02Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health Services |
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| series | Journal of Nutrition and Food Security |
| spelling | doaj.art-fe7dfa2b87f44512b432694a2486c9a12023-11-22T07:02:08ZengShahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and Health ServicesJournal of Nutrition and Food Security2476-74172476-74252023-11-0184654662The Effects of a Nutritional Education Package Titled "Eat a Rainbow Every Day" on Eating Behaviors and Physical Activity of Elementary School ChildrenMahdieh Sheikhi0Seyed Mehdi Tabatabaei1Monir Eftekharinia2Maryam Zaboli3 Department of Community Nutrition, National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute; Faculty of Nutrition Sciences and Food Technology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Health Promotion Research Center, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran Health Deputy, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran. Health Deputy, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran. Background: In school age children, a healthy nutritional behavior can prevent double burden of malnutrition and chronic diseases. Nutritional education has a key role in adopting a healthy lifestyle. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational package on the nutritional knowledge and practices, physical activity (PA), and body mass index (BMI) of elementary school children in Zahedan, southeast Iran. Methods: In this quasi-experimental before-after study, a total of 734 elementary school children, aged 10–14 years, recruited by census sampling method completed the survey. Each student received 8 hours of training and they were provided with a booklet that included a weekly chart for recording intake of food groups and PA by students for 3 months. A semi-structured questionnaire that included questions on the students' nutritional knowledge, eating behavior, PA performance, and BMI before and after the intervention was used for data collection. Paired t-test, McNemar's, and Friedman tests were used for data analysis. Results: Before the intervention, the mean score of nutritional knowledge was 7.5 and the prevalence of underweight and overweight/obesity was 17.4% and 0.4%, respectively. After the intervention, the results showed a significant increase in the nutritional knowledge scores, the number of days with 30 min PA per week, and the frequency of consumption of dairy products, animal protein, and fruits. Also, in comparison with before intervention, a significant decrease was found in the prevalence of underweight and overweight/obesity of school children after the intervention. Conclusion: This multifaceted nutritional education intervention was associated with improved nutritional knowledge score, PA, and being underweight in elementary school children. Corresponding Author:Seyed Mehdi Tabatabaei View Orcid in Profile You can search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar Profilehttp://jnfs.ssu.ac.ir/article-1-552-en.pdfbody mass indexeating behaviorknowledgephysical activityelementary school |
| spellingShingle | Mahdieh Sheikhi Seyed Mehdi Tabatabaei Monir Eftekharinia Maryam Zaboli The Effects of a Nutritional Education Package Titled "Eat a Rainbow Every Day" on Eating Behaviors and Physical Activity of Elementary School Children Journal of Nutrition and Food Security body mass index eating behavior knowledge physical activity elementary school |
| title | The Effects of a Nutritional Education Package Titled "Eat a Rainbow Every Day" on Eating Behaviors and Physical Activity of Elementary School Children |
| title_full | The Effects of a Nutritional Education Package Titled "Eat a Rainbow Every Day" on Eating Behaviors and Physical Activity of Elementary School Children |
| title_fullStr | The Effects of a Nutritional Education Package Titled "Eat a Rainbow Every Day" on Eating Behaviors and Physical Activity of Elementary School Children |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Effects of a Nutritional Education Package Titled "Eat a Rainbow Every Day" on Eating Behaviors and Physical Activity of Elementary School Children |
| title_short | The Effects of a Nutritional Education Package Titled "Eat a Rainbow Every Day" on Eating Behaviors and Physical Activity of Elementary School Children |
| title_sort | effects of a nutritional education package titled eat a rainbow every day on eating behaviors and physical activity of elementary school children |
| topic | body mass index eating behavior knowledge physical activity elementary school |
| url | http://jnfs.ssu.ac.ir/article-1-552-en.pdf |
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