Impact of nutritional education on knowledge, attitude and practice regarding anemia among school children in Belgaum, India

Abstract

Background

Anemia is a common public health problem throughout the globe with its main effect not only on health of people but also impact on socioeconomic development. A high prevalence of anemia among school children is an indication of a severe problem highlighting the necessity of proper action to prevent further deterioration. This study sought to study the impact of nutritional education on knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding anemia among school children.

Methods

This is an interventional study among school children of Kendriye Vidyalaya, No. 2 Belgaum district, India. Structured and self-administered questionnaires were used to know the knowledge, attitude and practice of student anemia. The data were analyzed using paired t-test and McNemar test.

Results

There was significant increment in the mean knowledge and attitude scores of the school children at the post-test evaluation.  Overall increase of 51.2% in mean score of knowledge and overall increase of 20.7% in mean score of attitudes was found (P < 0.05). Increase in frequency of consumption pattern of iron rich foods especially ragi, jaggery, green leafy vegetables and sprouted grains was reported.

Conclusion

The nutritional education resulted in improvement of knowledge and change in attitude regarding anemia as well as increase in consumption of foods rich in Iron. Therefore, nutritional education is one of the cost-effective and sustainable method for lowering the cases of anemia.