Impact of the nutrition education Program Nutriamigos® on levels of awareness on healthy eating habits in school-aged children

Abstract

 Introduction: With the increase of childhood obesity, early intervention in nutrition education becomes necessary. Therefore, during the school period, the school becomes the best place for implementation of a nutritional education program. Objective: The current study was carried out in a public and in a private school, with the objective of evaluating and comparing the results of the "Nutriamigos®" Program on food and nutrition knowledge of children with different socioeconomic levels, sex, age and Body Mass Index (BMI). Method: Comparative longitudinal study, before and after educational intervention. To evaluate the intervention, a public (school 1) and a private school (school 2) were selected. This was a random, convenience sample comparing students from different social and economic levels, consisting of 242 (school 1) and 99 children (school 2), respectively, totaling 341 children, from 6 to 10 years of age. The Body Mass Index was used to measure nutritional status. Knowledge about food and nutrition was evaluated through a questionnaire, applied before and after intervention. The nutritional intervention consisted of 12 classes of 50 minutes each. Results: The improvement in knowledge on food and nutrition between the pre and post intervention stages was statistically significant. Conclusion: The "Nutriamigos®" Program reached its goal, demonstrating that it is effective in public and private schools and should not be differentiated for boys or girls, or for children with normal or excessive weight.