A survey on recognition and application of food nutritional labels among middle school students in Minhang District of Shanghai

Objective To understand the recognition,attitude and application of food nutritional labels among the middle school students of Minhang district of Shanghai and to provide scientific basis for the development of intervention measures about the health education of targeted nutritional labels.Methods With the method of stratified random sampling,514 students from 4 public middle schools of Minhang district were selected to have a questionnaire survey on their recognition and application of food nutritional labels.Results Among the respondents,74.1% knew the food nutritional labels and 25.9% of respondents did not know the food nutritional labels.83.9% of students thought that the nutritional labels were necessary.The average total score of knowledge about nutritional labels in students was (15.61±4.86),which belonged to the "middle and lower" level.47.3% of respondents often read the nutritional labels,30.9% of students often referred to the nutritional labels while purchasing food.There were significant statistical differences in the proportion of students' reading between different grades,gender and kinds of nutritional labels(x2 =16.802,5.344,17.667,P<0.05).The reading proportion of junior high school students was higher than that of senior high school students and the reading proportion of boys was higher than that of girls,and the students who got higher score of nutritional labels related knowledge had the higher proportion of reading.Conclusion The proportions of reading,understanding and application of nutritional labels were low in middle school students.It was suggested that targeted activities of health education about nutritional labels were carreied out in middle schools,especially for the senior high school students and female students.