Effectiveness of nutritional education among pupils in primary school for migrant workers' children in Pudong New Area

Objective To explore the effectiveness of nutritional education on improvement of nutritional knowledge and dietary behaviors among primary students in Pudong New Area.Methods The baseline survey on nutrition-related knowledge and dietary behaviors was conducted among 720 pupils selected by random cluster sampling from 4 primary schools for migrant workers' children in Pudong New Area.The respondents were divided into intervention group and control group.Nutritional intervention were carried out to the intervention group for six months.Nutritional knowledge,dietary attitude and practice of both groups were compared before and after intervention.Results After intervention,the overall awareness rate of nutritional knowledge and dietary behaviors in intervention group increased from 17.6% to 83.3%(P<0.01),and the percentage of students having a positive dietary attitude increased from 85.2% to 99.1%(P<0.01),as well as the proportion of healthy eating behavior increased from 60.7% to 76.4%(P<0.05).However,there was no statistically differences in control group(P>0.05).Conclusion Nutritional education can significantly enhance nutritional knowledge,improve dietary behavior and promote healthy growth of students in migrant workers schools.