de Vlieger Nienke, van Rossum Jolien, Riley Nicholas, Miller Andrew, Collins Clare, Bucher Tamara
School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medicine, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan 2308, NSW, Australia.
Priority Research Centre in Physical Activity and Nutrition, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan 2308, NSW, Australia.
Children (Basel). 2020 Mar 27;7(4):24. doi: 10.3390/children7040024.
In NSW, Australia, the views of primary-school aged children and their parents in regard to the importance of nutrition education at school are unclear. The aim of the current study was to explore children's knowledge of nutrition and eating habits and to identify gaps that future school nutrition education programs could target. Students aged 9 to 12 years and their parents ( = 21 dyads) were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews, complete a nutrition knowledge questionnaire, and perform a "healthy-unhealthy" food sorting task in a University food laboratory. Among the children, nutrition knowledge scores concerning "serves & portions" of common foods were lowest, identifying a gap in knowledge related to portion size. All children categorized fruits, vegetables, cola, and water correctly as "healthy" or "unhealthy" in the sorting task, but not for the sausage and muesli bar, suggesting that further support categorising processed foods may be needed. The interviews indicated that parents do actively try to teach their children about nutrition, although they reported feeling uncertain about their own level of nutrition knowledge. Children and parents indicated that there is very little nutrition education in school and more is needed. This research could be used to inform future curriculum components related to nutrition education for primary school children.
在澳大利亚新南威尔士州，小学适龄儿童及其父母对学校营养教育重要性的看法尚不明晰。本研究的目的是探究儿童的营养知识和饮食习惯，并找出未来学校营养教育项目可以针对的差距。邀请了9至12岁的学生及其父母（共21对）参加在大学食品实验室进行的半结构化访谈、完成一份营养知识问卷，并进行一项“健康-不健康”食品分类任务。在孩子们当中，关于常见食物“份数和分量”的营养知识得分最低，这表明在分量大小相关知识方面存在差距。在分类任务中，所有孩子都能正确地将水果、蔬菜、可乐和水归类为“健康”或“不健康”食品，但对于香肠和什锦早餐棒则不能正确分类，这表明可能需要进一步帮助他们对加工食品进行分类。访谈表明，父母确实积极尝试向孩子传授营养知识，尽管他们表示对自己的营养知识水平感到不确定。孩子和父母都表示学校里的营养教育非常少，需要加强。这项研究可用于为未来小学儿童营养教育的课程内容提供参考。
