Assessment of Healthy Eating Awareness of Schoolchildren in a Digital Environment

Abstract

Introduction: Daily diets of contemporary schoolchildren mainly consist of foodstuffs, which are rich in fats and carbohydrates but poor in proteins, vitamins, and trace elements. Food stereotypes associated with consumption of freeze-dried and refined food as well as fast food products have become widespread. Such negative manifestations of the eating behavior of schoolchildren are largely determined by nutritional unawareness and necessitate appropriate measures for enhancing food literacy to preserve and strengthen health of the younger generation. Objectives: To assess nutritional awareness of contemporary schoolchildren in a digital environment using a modified questionnaire. Materials and methods: We modified the questionnaire developed on the basis of ten principles of healthy eating promoted by the World Health Organization to establish healthy diet awareness of 73 Moscow fifth-year schoolchildren. The self-administered questionnaire contained 23 questions. Results: Almost all the respondents lacked the necessary level of knowledge about healthy eating: 93 % and 7 % of the schoolchildren had a moderate and low food literacy level, respectively, and none of the pupils demonstrated a high level of awareness. The diet was perceived as unbalanced or partially balanced by 14 % and 7 %, respectively, and high-calorie – by 70 % of the respondents. Only 10 % of the pupils agreed that the diet influenced their school performance, while 20 % of them were not sure about that and 70 % disagreed. Conclusions: The identified eating disorders were associated with the level of food literacy. Our questionnaire proved to be an effective tool of obtaining detailed information about dietary habits of schoolchildren, and it can therefore be recommended for a larger survey aimed at early detection of eating disorders, improvement of food literacy, and prevention of nutrition-related health problems.