Effects of health education on Chinese Dietary Guidelines and relative nutritional knowledge, attitude and behavior among primary school students in Jintan city

Objective To improve knowledge, attitude, practice (KAP) of dietary nutrition among primary school students through health education.Methods A self-admin istered questionnaire survey was conducted among 307 students of grade 5 in 2 primary schools in Jintan city, Jiangsu province.The students in one school were given health education on the Chinese Dietary Guidelines 2007 for 3 months and the other school was taken as control group.The effect was evaluated 3 months after the education.Results After the education, the nutritional knowledge of the students improved significantly and their dietary behavior became more reasonable.The students who learnd the Chinese Dietary Guide lines rised from 15.5% (17/109) to 84.4% (92/109) (χ²=103.21, P<0.05) and the percentage of the students having breakfast every day increased from 59.8% (65/109) to 72.5% (79/109) (χ²=4.01, P<0.05).Conclusion Nutrition education can improve the nutritional knowledge and dietary behavior among primary school students.