Effectiveness of nutrition education in enhancing knowledge and attitude of pupils on choice of school mid-day meal in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

Children's food choices affect their nutritional health, development, and well-being. In Nigeria, school lunch is generally unregulated; the food menu is usually at the discretion of individual vendors forcing pupils to make unsupervised food choices. This study examined the effectiveness of 6-week nutrition education in enhancing pupils' knowledge and attitude on the school mid-day meal choices in Ibadan, Nigeria. A pre-test/post-test, quasi-experimental study was conducted with 100 pupils in 4th and 5th grades in public primary schools. Multistage sampling was used to select the participants. A nutrition education module and a questionnaire were used to collect the data. Frequency counts and t-test were used for statistical analysis. Findings revealed the following dietary pattern: 44 of the pupils preferred junk food (mean 41.5, SD = 12.9), 37 were inclined toward protein-rich food (mean 37.7, SD = 12.5), 32 favored food items dense in carbohydrates (mean 34.4, SD = 9.5), and 11 showed a preference toward food with high vitamins and minerals (mean 28.4, SD = 7.5). Nutrition knowledge (t = 6.4, df = 99, p