Journal of Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences

Background: Children and adolescents more than other age groups need adequate and healthy nutrition to achieve optimal physical growth and mental development. Children need nutritional education to obtain necessary skills for choosing proper foods to consume. This research aimed to survey the Effects of education on nutritional knowledge and behavior in elementary school students in Torbat-e-heydarieh in 2011.

Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 160 elementary school students were selected via simple multi-stage random sampling and divided to two intervention and control group. The data collection tools was researcher made questionnaire that its validity and reliability were reviewed and confirmed. Pre-test performed from two groups. Based on the results of the pre-test need assessment was done and educational intervention was performed through questions and answers technique by trained peers on intervention group. The training meeting was 45 minutes. Post-test was conducted 2 month later. The collected data were analyzed using independent t-test, paired t-test and Chi-Square in SPSS.

Findings: Before the intervention the mean of knowledge and behavior scores in both case and control groups were the same. But, performing post-test showed than the mean of scores in the case group was higher than control group and this was statistically significant (P < 0.05).