title: Effectiveness of a school-based nutrition and food safety education program among primary and junior high school students in Chongqing, China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Health behavioral patterns, especially eating patterns, established in childhood often carry over into adulthood, and some of the unhealthy ones are later associated with adult morbidity and mortality. Recently, a few nutrition and food safety education programs have been implemented in primary and junior high schools in China.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aims to examine the effectiveness of a school-based nutrition and food safety education program among primary and junior high school students in China.
  
  
  METHODS
  A mixed study design incorporating an intervention study and a quantitative survey was conducted for this research. With stratified cluster sampling, students from the 5(th) and 6(th) grade in one primary school and the 7(th) and 8(th) grade in one junior high school in Chongqing, China, were all selected and separated randomly into an intervention group (n = 501) and a control group (n = 522). Effectiveness evaluation investigations were performed at the initial time and nine-month follow-up (n = 472), respectively. Effectiveness of pre-/post-intervention and nine-month follow-up changes in scores of nutrition knowledge and food safety was assessed using a two-tailed t-test and analysis of variance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nutrition knowledge scores for the intervention group were mean 9.03, SD±2.75 at the baseline, and 14.70±3.28 after intervention. There was a significant improvement (t = 29.78, p < 0.01). The nine-month follow-up knowledge scores of the intervention group were 12.35±2.89, which were lower than the immediately after the intervention group (t = 12.40, p<0.01), but higher than those of the baseline level (t = 18.04, p < 0.01). Food safety scores of the post-intervention were higher (p < 0.01) than that of the control group in both pre-intervention and nine-month follow-up. The control group had no significant change in the pre-post intervention.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is feasible and effective to improve nutrition and food safety knowledge among primary and junior high school students through school-based nutrition and food safety education programs.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, China.
authors.forename: Wen-Jie
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, China.
authors.forename: Xiang-Long
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, China.
authors.forename: Ge
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Health Promotion & Education, University of Cincinnati, USA.
authors.forename: Manoj
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, China.
authors.forename: Ya-Ling
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Qie
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, China zhaoyong@cqmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D059022:Food Safety / Q000379:methods*; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012572:School Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D013334:Students
keywords: effectiveness evaluation; nutrition association; nutrition education; nutrition knowledge; school-based nutrition