A study of the nutritional knowledge awareness among primary students in rural poor areas

Objective To assess nutritional knowledge awareness among primary students in rural poor areas,and to provide scientific basis for nutrition improvement and appropriate nutritional intervention.Methods Random multi-stage clustering sampling method was employed to select 2 939 primary students from 5 rural areas:Pingquan in Hebei,Wufeng in Hubei,Longyang in Yunan,Pingyang in Hunan,Dunhua in Jiling.And then a self-designed questionnaire was conducted to collect their basic information and information regarding nutritional knowledge.Results The accurate rates of nutritional knowledge ranged from 21.4% to 97.4%.Among them,the awareness rate of nutrition breakfast food(21.4%) was lowest,and the rate of choice of drinks (92.2%) and a reasonable choice of snacks(97.4%) ranked highest.The resident students were more correct in most questions than the non-resident students (P<0.01).The accuracy rate of the students with no migrant parents or only migrant father was higher than those with migrant parents or migrant mother (P<0.01).The accuracy rate of the relevant knowledge increased with the increasing grade,and the differences between areas were of statistical significance (P<0.01).The average score of the nutritional knowledge among the students at the high grade was (6.03± 1.75).The differences lying in grade,area,whether board or not,whether having immigrant parents or not were of statistical significance (P<0.01).Conclusion The primary students in rural poor areas are lack of nutritional knowledge.School-based nutritional propaganda and education should be offered to improve the nutritional knowledge of primary students.