Effects of School-Based Nutrition Education Intervention in Preschool Children and Their Teachers: An Experimental Study

Objective: This study aimed to examine the effects of healthy nutrition education on eating habits and anthropometric measurements of preschool children and the nutritional knowledge levels of their teachers. Material and Methods: Sixty preschool children educated in a kindergarten in Ankara and 6 teachers were included in this follow-up and single-center study. Researchers applied separate questionnaires including ''Food Preference Image'' for children and 'Nutrition Knowledge Level Scale for Adults' for their teachers. Comprehensive healthy nutrition education that had different contents was given to children and teachers. Measurements of pre-education, follow-up 1 (immediate post-intervention), and follow-up 2 (one-month post-intervention) were compared with the Paired Samples t-test, Friedman test, Wilcoxon signed ranks test, and McNemar test. Results: The percentile of body weight and height by age of children increased (Z: -3.297; -2.524 respectively, p<0.05) in follow-up 2 compared to pre-education. Eating behaviors, food consumption, and food preferences of children improved (p<0.05). Mean scores of Nutrition Knowledge Level Scale for Adults of teachers were higher at follow-up 1 and follow-up 2 than pre-education (F=64.809; degree of freedom=2; p<0.05). Conclusion: Although the healthy nutrition education presented in this study was short-term, preschool children started to eat healthier, and the nutrition attitudes of teachers improved. Comprehensive studies with longer follow-up intervals should be conducted with large samples and more centers to ensure that these effects are due to nutrition education and to measure the effectiveness of the intervention.