Nutrition Knowledge and Food Choices of Primary School Pupils in the

Abstract: The study investigated the effect of a 3 – week school based nutrition education programme on nutrition knowledge and healthy food choices of 197 primary six pupils (197 sixth grades) randomly divided into a control (n = 102) or an experimental group (n = 95). The control group received no nutrition education while the experimental group received 40 minutes of nutrition education, 4 days a week for 3 weeks nutrition knowledge scores and 3 day food records were collected at the beginning of the study and after 3 weeks. Food records were used to evaluate healthy food choices (i.e Dietary Guideline’s recommended intake for macronutrients and the recommendations of the Food Guide Pyramid for each food group). In the experimental group three was significantly greater increase in nutrition knowledge score (p = 0.001) and significantly change in compliance in meeting the Dietary Guidelines (p = 0.0001) and the Food Guide Pyramid’s recommendations (p = 0.0001). This study showed the effectiveness of a nutrition education programme on nutrition knowledge scores and healthy primary six pupils (children in sixth grade). Key words: Dietary habits nutrition intervention, malnutrition, healthy food choice