Improving Nutrition Knowledge and Skills by the Innovative Education Program MaestraNatura in Middle School Students of Italy

Abstract

Promoting a healthy diet, mainly in youths, is the most effective action to prevent and fight dietary excesses and nutritional imbalance in the population. MaestraNatura (MN) is an innovative nutritional education program aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle in first-level secondary school students. The study evaluated the effectiveness of the MN program in improving knowledge in students following the MN program (MN group) with respect to a control group (CO group) undergoing a “traditional” nutritional education path. To this end, the nutrition knowledge of the two groups was assessed by three multi-choice questionnaires. The results showed a significant improvement in knowledge (p < 0.001) in the MN group with respect to the CO group for all the questionnaires. Furthermore, the students’ ability to transfer the principles of nutrition guidelines to the real context of daily meals was determined by asking the MN group to create a weekly food plan before (T0) and after (T1) the completion of the MN program. The MN group demonstrated improved performance in organizing the weekly menu plan at T1 with respect to T0 (p = 0.005). In conclusion, the MN nutritional education program appears to be an effective tool for improving knowledge and skills on nutritional issues, especially in those students with a lower starting level of knowledge and ability.

MaestraNatura Reveals Its Effectiveness in Acquiring Nutritional Knowledge and Skills: Bridging the Gap between Girls and Boys from Primary School

“…Our results showed that the primary school students who underwent the nutrition education program MNP had more knowledge about nutrition, as assessed by the knowledge questionnaire, than those attending traditional programs, as was previously proven in middle school students [ 20 ].…”

“…The improvement of knowledge is considered a necessary step to increase the population’s health literacy and, especially, food literacy, being proposed as effective tools in improving the adherence to adequate dietary habits [ 25 ], as also indicated in the “White Paper on nutrition-, overweight-, and obesity-related health issues”, published in 2008 by the European Commission [ 26 ]. However, increasing knowledge, although necessary, might not be enough to promote effective and long-lasting effects on dietary habits without a concomitant acquisition of skills that enable people to translate the theory in practice, i.e., to implement the food pyramid principles into their daily diets [ 20 , 27 , 28 ]. This aspect was highlighted in a recent systematic review that pointed out how nutrition education interventions based on practical activities are more likely to be successful in improving diet quality among children [ 29 ].…”

“…The objectives of the study and the required activities were explained to teachers and parents in meetings and leaflets before the start of the didactic activities. The study was approved by the ethics committee of Istituto Superiore di Sanità (AOO-ISS 26.04.21 n.0015951) [ 20 ].…”

“…Furthermore, most of the interventions consisted of few and short lessons which were not organised in a structured education program and generally without planning practical activities or the involvement of parents [ 17 , 18 ]. The MaestraNatura Program (MNP) is an innovative nutrition education program developed by Istituto Superiore di Sanità to guide teachers, parents, and children attending primary and first-level secondary schools through an 8-year learning path [ 19 , 20 ].…”

“…Finally, the MNP takes advantage of a web platform that makes it potentially spread and easily adapted everywhere, allowing the standardisation of the intervention [ 19 , 20 ].…”