A nutrition curriculum for health education: its effect on students' knowledge, attitude, and behavior.

The objective of the study was to determine the effect of nutrition instruction, using the curriculum guides, Nutrition In A Changing World, A Curriculum for Junior High Health, and A Curriculum for Senior High Health, on improving the nutrition knowledge, selected food/nutrition attitudes, and dietary behavior of students enrolled in secondary level health courses. Three groups of students were utilized including one experimental and two control groups at each level (junior high and senior high). The experimental group was pretested, taught the nutrition curriculum, and posttested. One control group was posttested only to measure the effect of the pretest on posttest performance. A second control group was pretested and posttested. Neither control group received nutrition instruction until after the study was completed. The three instruments used to collect data were a nutrition knowledge test, a food/nutrition attitude instrument, and a food frequency form. The results indicate that, at all grade levels, the experimental group had significantly improved knowledge scores. Little change in attitude scale scores was noted in grades seven and eight, while ninth grade experimental students scored significantly higher on the posttest for all attitude scales. Little improvement was seen in the posttest food frequency scores.