Effectiveness of a school-based nutrition and food safety education program among primary and junior high school students in Chongqing, China

Abstract

Background: Health behavioral patterns, especially eating patterns, established in childhood often carry over into adulthood, and some of the unhealthy ones are later associated with adult morbidity and mortality. Recently, a few nutrition and food safety education programs have been implemented in primary and junior high schools in China. Purpose: This study aims to examine the effectiveness of a school-based nutrition and food safety education program among primary and junior high school students in China. Methods: A mixed study design incorporating an intervention study and a quantitative survey was conducted for this research. With stratified cluster sampling, students from the 5th and 6th grade in one primary school and the 7th and 8th grade in one junior high school in Chongqing, China, were all selected and separated randomly into an intervention group ( n = 501) and a control group ( n = 522). Effectiveness evaluation investigations were performed at the initial time and nine-month follow-up ( n = 472), respectively. Effectiveness of pre-/post-intervention and nine-month follow-up changes in scores of nutrition knowledge and food safety was assessed using a two-tailed t-test and analysis of variance. Results: Nutrition knowledge scores for the intervention group were mean 9.03, SD±2.75 at the baseline, and 14.70±3.28 after intervention. There was a significant improvement ( t = 29.78, p < 0.01). The nine-month follow-up knowledge scores of the intervention group were 12.35±2.89, which were lower than the immediately after the intervention group ( t = 12.40, p<0.01 ), but higher than those of the baseline level ( t = 18.04, p < 0.01). Food safety scores of the post-intervention were higher ( p < 0.01) than that of the control group in both pre-intervention and nine-month follow-up. The control group had no significant change in the pre-post intervention. Conclusions: It is feasible and effective to improve nutrition and food safety knowledge among primary and junior high school students through school-based nutrition and food safety education programs.