Objective: To assess the impact of a classroom-based nutrition and health education intervention among student community volunteers in improving their knowledge on individual topics. Design: Prospective follow-up study. Topic-wise knowledge change among student volunteers on individual topics (twenty-one questions related to nutrition and health, eight questions related to infectious diseases and two questions related to obesity and hypertension) pertaining to nutrition and health was evaluated at baseline and after intervention, using the McNemar test. Setting: Six different colleges affiliated to

Objective: To assess quantity and quality of nutrition and food safety information in science textbooks prescribed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), India for grades I through X. Design: Content analysis. Methods: A coding scheme was developed for quantitative and qualitative analyses. Two investigators independently coded the data and inter-coder reliability was assessed using Cohen’s Kappa. The inferences were then reviewed by an expert group. Results: There was high agreement (Kappa = 0.89) between coders. Nutrition topics got > 10% pages in textbooks of grades I to VII, while they were omitted in subsequent grades. Food safety got a mere 1% of page allocation only in grades I to III books. Over 25% of biology illustrations related to nutrition in grades I, II and IV but not in others. Nutrition topics in textbooks beyond grade IV were repetitive and inconsistent. Some illustrations depicted uncommon foods and had urban bias. Conclusions: Nutrition and food safety content in science textbooks is low. Important topics such as nutritional needs during adolescence, obesity, unhealthy foods and food labelling are not covered. These findings provide direction for strengthening textbook content to promote nutrition education in schools.

Objective: To assess the efficacy of the Food and Agriculture Organization's global school-based nutrition education initiative, Feeding Minds, Fighting Hunger (FMFH), in improving nutrition-related knowledge levels of schoolchildren. Design: Adopting the cluster randomisation technique, five schools each in experimental and control groups were randomly chosen from the member schools of a voluntary organisation. Repeated measures of knowledge levels were carried out at three points in time to assess pre-, post-intervention and retention of knowledge gained during the intervention. Children from experimental schools were given nutrition education by teachers in the classroom setting using FMFH material. Subjects/settings: Schoolchildren (n ¼ 358 in the control group and n ¼ 312 in the experimental group) of grades VIII and IX from schools in Hyderabad, India. Results: The classroom-based intervention resulted in a significant improvement (P , 0.01) in nutrition knowledge levels of schoolchildren in the experimental group. Significant improvement in knowledge was also observed in the control group. The effect size indicated that the improvement in knowledge levels of schoolchildren in experimental schools over control schools was medium (d ¼ 0.40), indicating the efficacy of the FMFH programme in improving nutrition-related knowledge. No significant decrease (P . 0.05) in knowledge levels was observed after 2 months, indicating retention of the knowledge acquired through the intervention. Conclusion: The FMFH programme provides an opportunity for schoolchildren to learn more about nutrition through their teachers in a classroom setting if the lesson plans are adapted to the local circumstances. Furthermore, it has the potential to make nutrition education interactive, effective and sustainable.

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