THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ONLINE TRAINING TO IMPROVE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES, AND SELF-EFFICACY OF NUTRITION EDUCATORS FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN

Abstract

Nutrition education can contribute to maintaining health and optimal learning capacities during childhood. One important aspect to achieve goals and have successful nutrition education in schoolchildren is the quality of nutrition educators. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of online nutrition educator training to improve knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy in giving nutrition education and overcoming barriers in nutrition education due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This was a quasi-experimental study with one group pretest-posttest design, including seventy-three nutrition educators. Nutrition educators derived from nutrition students/alumni and was recruited online by interviews. Intervention was done in terms of one-time online education by the experienced lecturers. Knowledge regarding reducing salt, sugar and fat consumption was retrieved from 20 multiple choice questions. Self-efficacy was assessed using a self-developed questionnaire. From this study, intervention for nutrition educators significantly increased educators’ knowledge by 3 points from 82 to 85 (p<0.01) and improved self-efficacy was significant for 1-time and 3-times per week. Nutrition educators perceived that the best duration to do nutrition education related to reduction of sugar, salt and fat among schoolchildren was 3 times/week, for 30 minutes per meeting. Higher self-efficacy was found in giving offline than online nutrition education. Crowded places, bad weather, a conducive environment, and educators’ bad health become barriers to nutrition educators in providing nutrition education. Nutrition educators are having more self-efficacy in giving nutrition education using power-points (p <0.001) rather than through video or games in online based-nutrition education for schoolchildren. This study succeeded in providing significant results on the effectiveness of one-day training in improving the nutrition educators’ knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy.