Department of Nutrition & Dietetics, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM, 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Department of Nutrition, Batu Pahat District Health Office, 83000, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia.
BMC Public Health. 2019 Oct 30;19(1):1427. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-7708-y.
Malnutrition among school children may contribute to adverse health consequences such as non-communicable diseases, poor cognitive performance, psychological distress and poor quality of life that may persist into adulthood. In order to prevent childhood malnutrition, an intervention programme that integrates nutrition education and healthy school food environment is needed to provide nutrition information and reinforce the skills on healthy eating behaviours in schools. This paper describes a study protocol of a school-based intervention programme that integrates nutrition education and healthy school food environment, namely School Nutrition Programme (SNP). The SNP is a primary prevention programme that promotes healthy lifestyle among primary school children in light of the high prevalence of malnutrition in Malaysian children.
METHODS/DESIGN: This quasi-experimental study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the SNP between intervention and comparison groups before and after the SNP, and after a 3-month follow-up. The SNP consisted of two main components, whereby three nutrition education sessions were implemented by trained teachers using three standardised modules, and healthy school food environment was implemented by the canteen food handlers with the provision of healthy menu to children during school recess times. Children from intervention group participated in the SNP, in addition to the standard Physical and Health Curriculum. The comparison group attended only the standardised Physical and Health Curriculum and the school canteen food handlers were reminded to follow the standard canteen guidelines from the Ministry of Education Malaysia. The assessment parameters in evaluating the effectiveness of the programme were knowledge, attitude and practice on nutrition, eating behaviours, physical activity, body composition, psychological distress, cognitive performance and health-related quality of life. Assessments were conducted at three time points: pre-intervention, post-intervention and 3-month follow-up.
It was hypothesised that the SNP would be effective in promoting healthy lifestyle among school children, and further contributes in preventing malnutrition problem, enhancing cognitive performance and improving health-related quality of life among school children. Findings of the present study can be expanded to other schools in future on ways to improve nutrition education and healthy school food environment.
UMIN Clinical Trial Registration UMIN000032914 (Date of registration: 7th June 2018, retrospectively registered).
16th September 2019 & Version 4.
在校儿童营养不良可能导致非传染性疾病、认知表现不佳、心理困扰和生活质量差等不良健康后果，这些问题可能会持续到成年期。为了预防儿童营养不良，需要开展一项将营养教育与健康学校食物环境相结合的干预计划，以便在学校提供营养信息并强化健康饮食行为技能。本文描述了一项基于学校的干预计划，即学校营养计划（SNP），该计划将营养教育与健康学校食物环境相结合，这是一项针对马来西亚儿童普遍存在营养不良问题的初级预防计划。
方法/设计：这是一项准实验研究，旨在评估 SNP 在干预组和对照组在 SNP 前后以及 3 个月随访期间的有效性。SNP 由两个主要部分组成，由经过培训的教师使用三个标准化模块实施三次营养教育课程，由食堂工作人员实施健康学校食物环境，在课间休息时间为儿童提供健康菜单。除了标准的体育与健康课程外，干预组的儿童还参加 SNP。对照组仅参加标准化的体育与健康课程，提醒学校食堂工作人员遵守马来西亚教育部的标准食堂指南。评估方案的有效性的评估参数包括营养知识、态度和实践、饮食行为、身体活动、身体成分、心理困扰、认知表现和健康相关生活质量。评估在三个时间点进行：干预前、干预后和 3 个月随访。
假设 SNP 将有效促进儿童的健康生活方式，并进一步有助于预防营养不良问题，提高儿童的认知表现和改善健康相关生活质量。本研究的结果可以在未来推广到其他学校，以改善营养教育和健康学校食物环境。
UMIN 临床研究注册 UMIN000032914（注册日期：2018 年 6 月 7 日，回溯性注册）。
2019 年 9 月 16 日第 4 版。
