title: Development and evaluation of a nutritional health program for adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Unhealthy nutritional behaviors are a threat to adolescents. In this regard, we compared different training methods through a participatory interventional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Through proportional random selection, 1823 female students were selected from 15 middle schools of Tehran. Following 2 years of intervention, nutritional habits of three different interventional groups were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eating breakfast was significantly higher in the trained groups, and the use of weight loss diets was lower in them than in the control group. Also, satisfactory consumption of various kinds of nutrients in the trained groups was more than in the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Participatory health training, especially through parents, leads to adolescence nutritional health promotion.
authors.affiliation: Research Expert, Deputy of Research and Technology, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, and Non Comunicable Disease Research center, Endocrine and Metabolism Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Shirin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Djalalinia
authors.affiliation: Reproductive Endocrinology Research Center, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshty University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Fahimeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ramezani-Tehrani
authors.affiliation: Public health faculty, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Malekafzali
authors.affiliation: Research expert, Deputy of Research and Technology, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Farzaneh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hejazi
authors.affiliation: Research Expert, Deputy of Research and Technology, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, and Non Comunicable Disease Research center, Endocrine and Metabolism Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Niloofar
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Peykari
keywords: Adolescents; Iran; health education; nutrition; promotion