Impact of nutrition education on the nutritional status

Purpose - Nutrition education is an important measure to improve dietary habits and food choices, since poor dietary habits are the main reason for poor nutritional status of adolescents. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of nutrition education on the nutritional and dietary profile of adolescents and early adults. Design/methodology/approach - A pre-test post-test experimental design was employed and the study was a cross-sectional study. From three stratified areas of Benghazi city, two schools were selected by random sampling. From the total of six schools, all the children aged 14-21 years were selected, amounting to 111 girls and 89 boys. Nutrition education was imparted after initial nutritional (BMI, physical activity) and dietary assessment (food frequency, 24 hour recall) and repeated at weekly intervals. After three months, nutritional and dietary assessments were again repeated. Findings - No significant changes in BMI and physical activity were observed. A significant reduction in the frequency of intakes of chocolate (p < 0.01), chips (p < 0.01), bread and fast food in the female subjects and bread (p < 0.01), cereals and chocolate in the male subjects were observed. Significant increases were observed with respect to percentage of RDA met by intake of nutrients such as energy, carbohydrate, riboflavin and niacin and a significant decrease in the intake of zinc in male subjects. Originality/value - The paper shows that nutrition education is the need of the hour, which would help adolescents and early adults to imbibe healthy eating habits.