Design of nutrition education program for elementary schools in the Czech Republic - an effective education curriculum instrument
Abstrakt
Obesity and overweight of children are a major global problem nowadays. According to the Regional Office for Europe (2016), obesity has risen three times over the last two decades worldwide.
The attention is currently focused on population-wide health promotion and disease prevention through comprehensive health education, starting in the early age of individuals, aimed at slowing down the increasing incidence of obesity and related health issues. This chapter discusses the pedagogical aspects of health, specifically the options of how to shape nutritional habits of elementary school students and how to systematically deepen the knowledge about healthy nutrition by implementation of nutrition education programs.
The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between dietary habits and healthy nutrition knowledge of ninth graders from the elementary schools in the Czech Republic, who have completed the compulsory school attendance. The research was aimed to design a nutrition education program for the Czech grammar schools.
The designed program reflects current nutritional habits and knowledge about nutrition of Czech students and nutritional recommendations for the Czech population targeted to children, which also corresponds to the nutritional topics integrated into the National Health Curriculum Recommendations for Czech Elementary Schools. The program has been inspired by The Nutrition Education Program developed by Nebraska Extension of University of Nebraska - Lincoln that is being delivered in 32 counties in Nebraska (program was funded in part by USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Expanded Food & Nutrition Education Program - EFNEP).
A validated Nutritional survey (analyzing nutritional habits, attitudes towards proper nutrition and basic health nutrition skills) and Nutritional knowledge quiz (analyzing the level of knowledge related to nutrition for secondary school students) were designed to determine the relationship between knowledge and behavior of ninth grade students from elementary schools in the Czech Republic. The research group consisted of 1,028 ninth graders from 25 different elementary schools.
Current nutritional habits and knowledge of Czech ninth graders were analysed. The study has brought a number of more or less surprising findings, describing the hygienic habits of Czech children, their diet and drinking regimen or the content of the students diet.
Pearson's correlation coefficient between nutrition related knowledge and nutritional habits of examined respondents (0.327 at the reached level of significance of the p test was less than 0.001) confirmed the relatively high association of variables (the null hypothesis was also rejected at 0.01% significance level). The Nutrition Education Program - a comprehensive curriculum for teachers and set of educational and didactical materials for Czech elementary schools was designed based on the research findings, as well as experience from practical trials of the Nutrition education programs designed by the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.
The program appears to be a suitable instrument for effective nutrition education and a popular tool for the organization of education among teachers. Designed Nutrition Education Program allows one's knowledge, behavior and attitudes to be shaped in desired direction while letting students have fun and incorporate newly adopted behavioral patterns into their everyday lives.