Adolescence is a phase in the life cycle of human beings. Adequate knowledge, attitudes and practices towards malnutrition are necessary for proper growth and development and for their future children. This systematic review aimed to determine the effect of health education intervention to improve the knowledge, attitudes and practices of adolescents on malnutrition. PubMed, Scopus, clinical trials, CINAHL, SAGE, Science Direct and Medline were searched according to Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and Meat-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines to identified published studies from January 2013 to December 2019 based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of eight studies were included in this review. Data extraction was done based on randomized controlled trial only. Three out of the eight studies had low risk of bias, the overall evidence of the study was moderate. Findings from this study suggest that health education intervention among adolescents have significantly improved their knowledge, attitudes and practices. More specific interventions should be conducted in low and middle income countries since they bear more of the burden of malnutrition globally.

Addressing the gap in knowledge, attitude, and practice among adolescent girls are important as malnutrition has a negative effect on their future generation. This study aimed to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practice of adolescent girls towards reducing malnutrition in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council, Borno State, Nigeria. This was a school-based cross-sectional study conducted among 612 adolescent girls (10 to 19 years old). KoBo collect toolbox was used for the data collection between 3 June and 31 July 2019. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify predictors of knowledge, attitude, and practice towards reducing malnutrition. The majority of respondents (451, 80.2%; 322, 57.3%) had poor knowledge and attitude towards reducing malnutrition respectively, 278 (49.5%) had poor practice towards reducing malnutrition. Schooling (GGSS; p = 0.022; Shehu Garbai; p = 0.003) was a significant predictor of knowledge. Religion (p = 0.023), information (p < 0.001) and motivation (p < 0.001) were significant predictors of attitude. School (GGSS; p < 0.001; GGC; p < 0.001; Shehu garbai; p < 0.001; Bulabulin; p = 0.030; Zajeri day; p = 0.049), education of father (p = 0.001), information (p = 0.026) and behavioral skill (p = 0.019) were significant predictors of practice. There is a need to focus on both school-based and community-based health education intervention to address the poor knowledge, attitude, and practice among adolescent girls for a healthier future.

Knowledge and attitude are essential components of food security as malnutrition remains a critical public health concern among adolescents. The study evaluates the effectiveness of a Triple Benefit Health Education Intervention on knowledge, attitude and food security towards malnutrition among adolescent girls. This was a cluster randomized controlled trial among 417 randomly selected adolescent girls aged 10 to 19 years old in Maiduguri, Borno state, Nigeria from October 2019 to March 2020. About 208 respondents were assigned to experimental while 209 to control group, respectively, using an opaque sealed envelope. A structured questionnaire using KoBo Collect Toolbox was used for the collection of data at baseline, three and six-months post intervention while the data collected were analyzed using generalized estimating equation (GEE). The outcome of the baseline shows no statistically significant difference in sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and food security between experimental and control groups. The study reveals a statistically significant difference between experimental and control groups for knowledge (p < 0.001; p < 0.001), attitude (p < 0.001; p < 0.001) and food security (p = 0.026; p = 0.001) at three and six-months post intervention, respectively. The triple benefit health education intervention package employed in this study can serve as an intervention tool to combat malnutrition among adolescent girls in Nigeria at large.