impact of a school-based nutrition education program on adolescents’ nutrition knowledge in district Udham Singh Nagar of Uttarakhand

Abstract

Adolescence is a time of rapid personal development and growth. Adolescents should eat a well-balanced diet to support healthy physical and mental development and make up for any dietary deficiencies. Throughout this phase, it's imperative to establish healthy eating practices to prevent future health issues including obesity and nutritional deficiencies. The present study was conducted on 2452 adolescents of 13 to 17 years of age studying in government schools of Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital districts of Uttarakhand in the years 2022 and 2023. Information on existing nutrition knowledge was collected using a detailed questionnaire consisting of 20 multiple choice questions related to nutrition and health. Each correct answer was given one mark and wrong answer was marked as zero. Nutrition education was imparted to the students for 6 days using a booklet consisting of Nutrition Health Modules, flash cards and educational videos and on the last day, post assessment of nutrition knowledge was done using the same questionnaire. The finding showed an increase of 91.13% in the nutritional knowledge of adolescents. It can be concluded that nutrition education can be a good strategy to raise public awareness of nutrition issues and contribute to the development of a healthy population.