Effect of nutrition education received by teachers on primary school students' nutrition knowledge

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess the effect of nutrition education received by fourth- and fifth-grade teachers in state schools in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus, on their students. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The aim of this study is to assess the effect of nutrition education received by fourth- and fifth-grade teachers (n = 27) in state schools in Famagusta on their students. Participants (n = 718) were selected through a regional pilot scheme. The teachers were instructed on nutrition by the researcher and provided with a researcher-prepared nutrition education book “I Am Learning about Healthy Nutrition”. Before receiving their nutrition education, the teachers were pretested to assess their baseline nutrition knowledge. Following receipt of their nutrition education, a posttest, which included the same questions as those in the pretest, was administered to the teachers to assess the effectiveness of the training session. Similarly, students were asked pretest researcher-prepared questions to evaluate their baseline nutrition knowledge level. The teachers were then given a period of three to four weeks to instruct the students in nutrition education. Following this instructional period, a posttest that included the same questions as those in the pretest was administered to the students. RESULTS: The results showed that there were significant differences between the pre- and posttest scores of both teachers and students; in both groups, the nutrition knowledge level increased (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These results show that the provision of nutrition education training to teachers positively affected the nutrition knowledge level of both teachers and students.