title: [Effect of nutrition and food safety education among middle school students in a poverty-stricken county in west China].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effect of nutrition and food safety education among middle school students in a poverty-stricken county in west China, and to explore the better education model for further education.
  
  
  METHODS
  Students of grade 7 to 9 were selected from 4 middle schools in the country through multi-stage cluster sampling for the questionnaire, and the schools were assigned into an intervention group or a control group. After students in the intervention schools completed one year nutrition and food safety education with the textbooks, students were chosen from the same 4 schools to finish the same questionnaire again.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 410 students from grade 7 to 9 were selected at the baseline study, and 474 students in the final study. The essential characteristics of the 2 groups were not statistically significant (P>0.05). In the baseline investigation, the differences in the scores on nutrition and food safety knowledge, attitude and practice between the 2 groups were not significant (P>0.05). In the final study, the scores on the knowledge, attitude of nutrition knowledge learning, and dietary habits among students in the intervention group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P<0.05). School-students mixed model demonstrated that the intervention was protective factor on scores of knowledge, in particular with nutrition related diseases and reasonable diet (P<0.05). But the intervention didn't affect the scores on attitude in both ways (P>0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nutrition and food safety education can improve the nutrition and food safety knowledge effectively. The curriculum should be further standardized and different emphases should be set up to different grades to cultivate healthy diet behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine and Health Service Management, School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China.
authors.forename: Donghong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Zhenqiu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Jingxuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Minxue
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zeng
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D004032:Diet; D059022:Food Safety; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education*; D011203:Poverty; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires