Adherence to Dietary Guidelines for Elementary School Children According to Homeroom Teachers’ Nutrition Education
10.14373/JKDA.2020.26.2.141
- Author:
Eunjoo PARK
1
;
Hyunjoo KANG
;
Kyung Hee SONG
;
Kyung Ae PARK
;
Hongmie LEE
Author Information
1. Graduate School of Education, Daejin University, Pocheon 11159, Korea
- Publication Type:Original Article
- From:Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
2020;26(2):141-152
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
Homeroom teachers are not usually nutrition professionals, but they spend a lot of time with students in elementary school classrooms. This study was conducted to determine the association of homeroom teachers’ nutrition education with the dietary habits of their classroom children. The subjects were 131 homeroom teachers and their 1,102 children from 17 elementary schools in Gyeonggi, Korea. Self-administered questionnaires to collect information on dietary habits were conducted in December 2016. The dietary habits were determined with the adherences to the Dietary Guidelines for Adults and Children, respectively, by coding the better diet life with a higher score. The significances between groups according to teachers’ implementation of nutrition education (106 implemented, 25 not implemented) were analyzed by using SPSS at P＜0.05. Implementing nutrition education was not associated with the dietary habits of teachers themselves, but their students. Therefore, the students of teachers who implemented nutrition education had significantly higher adherence to 8 items out of 19 items (P＜0.05, P＜0.01). More of the students considered themselves as non-picky eaters (P＜0.05), tried to eat all the foods served at school lunch even when it contained unwanted ingredients (P＜0.01), and agreed on the need of nutrition education (P＜0.01), as compared to their counterparts. Conclusively, this study suggests that nutrition education delivered by homeroom teachers may be associated with more desirable dietary habits of students, even though homeroom teachers are not nutrition professionals. Therefore, efforts should be undertaken to develop and provide proper contents for homeroom teachers to use in nutrition education for elementary students.
