Objective: The study sought to assess the influence of nutrition education and intervention programmes on nutrition knowledge and dietary practice among both students and staff (including faculty) of Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University in Saudi Arabia. Design: A pretest–posttest, non-randomized experimental study design was implemented at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University in Riyadh City between September 2019 and February 2020. Setting: Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University is the largest women’s university in the world and has 18 colleges and institutions and around 90 academic programmes. Participants: The survey was completed by 1,824 participants (1,350 students and 474 staff/faculty) before the intervention, and by a different cohort of 1,731 participants (1,317 students and 414 staff/faculty) after the intervention. In total, an independent sample of 3,555 staff and students participated. Participants were asked about dietary knowledge and practices. Dietary knowledge entailed food variety and nutrients, fast food and its poor nutritional value, and the influence of cooking style on the nutritional quality of food. Dietary practices involved eating breakfast; consuming salt/sugar, eating high-salt food; eating pre-packaged food; and consumption of vegetables, fruits, supplements, water, and caffeine. Results: The majority of the sample consisted of students (75.1%) and had not been diagnosed with any disease (73.7%). The result of the current study showed that nutrition knowledge improved after completion of the nutrition programme. Conclusions: The nutrition awareness programme improved students’ nutritional knowledge; however, there was no significant effect on their dietary practices. Future nutrition awareness programmes should separate activities for students and staff, focusing on one target population at a time.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.