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Do these children benefit from audio-visual aid programmes such as Felicitous Foodology's whole school nutrition approach? YES! We need to start educating our children.
Why?
There is a major need for providing nutrition education to primary school pupils as they are barely aware of nutrients and the functions of foodstuffs and therefore go on to make poor food choices in adulthood.
Film made by KSPS PBS Education.
In a recent article published by the British Journal of nursing.com, Mehak Rasheed reflects on a study carried out with primary school children in a London area to see if our children really do need to be taught nutrition in primary schools.
Promoting nutritional education in primary school children
By Mehak Rasheed 20th April 2023
Background:
Inadequate nutrition knowledge leads to poor dietary choices to the detriment of the overall health of individuals and populations due to the likelihood of the development of various ill health conditions such as obesity and malnutrition. Childhood is the stage that sets a nutritional precedent for life and the attitudes, and beliefs developed in childhood tend to last for the individual's lifespan. Therefore, children should be provided with adequate nutritional knowledge to enable longer term healthier food choices.
Aim:
This study aimed to devise an appropriate strategy for the promotion of nutrition education in primary school children and to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention
Method:
A survey was used to assess the level of nutrition knowledge in children followed by the provision of nutrition education through sessions focusing on adopting easily understandable terms for nutrients and teaching at their level of understanding and education. Techniques such as audio-visual aids and question-and-answer sessions were used to make the sessions entertaining. The outcomes were evaluated through the same survey that was used pre-intervention. Data are presented from a quantitative analysis.
Results:
The outcomes of the first survey showed a major need for providing nutrition education to students as the students were barely aware of nutrients and the functions of foodstuffs and therefore made poor food choices. However, the post-intervention survey showed a significant improvement in nutritional knowledge, and the majority of the students knew how to make healthier food choices.
Tang and Intai (2018) found that audio-visual aids were highly effective in increasing
Conclusion
The evaluation of students' nutritional knowledge before the educational intervention showed that there was a significant lack in nutrition knowledge, which could have been attributed to various factors, including a poor family food environment and lack of nutrition education in the curriculum. It was observed that, by using techniques such as teaching videos and relevant storytelling, the educational intervention was effective in the delivery of key learning points. The research survey also confirmed that two teaching sessions of only 30-40 minutes resulted in a significant change in their attitudes towards, and knowledge of, food. The author therefore advocates that nutrition education should be added as a key component of the education curriculum to facilitate the improvement in the dietary habits of primary school-age students.
It is hoped that the outcomes of the current study will inform future studies and the creation of future nutrition education programmes and resources with the major goal of integrating nutrition education within the primary school curriculum.
KEY POINTS
Nutrition is the foundation for a healthy life, and eating habits, whether good or bad, are developed in childhood
The majority of the children included in this study lacked information regarding healthy eating choices and healthy food habits
The provision of nutrition education improved the majority of the children's attitudes towards healthy food and regular eating patterns
Nutrition education and healthy eating have a lifelong impact and should be included as an essential part of the school curriculum
What are we waiting for?
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