[Food and nutrition knowledge of elementary and high school-age children from Chile's Metropolitan Region].

BACKGROUND

In Chile there is scarce food and nutrition knowledge among school age children.

AIM

To determine the degree of food and nutrition knowledge of elementary and high school children and its relationship to socioeconomic status, sex, type of school and geographic area.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

Between 1986 and 1987, a representative and proportional sample of 4509 children was chosen from the Metropolitan Region. This sample was stratified according to school grade, sex, type of school and geographical area. Graffar's modified method was used to measure socioeconomic status. Food and nutrition knowledge was assessed by a specific test for each grade, based on the objectives pursued by the curricular programs of the Ministry of Education.

RESULTS

The test was applied to 4197 children. Food and nutrition knowledge was significantly lower in the second subcycle of elementary school, in males, in older children from each grade, in rural areas, in children of low socioeconomic status and in public schools.

CONCLUSIONS

School age children were unaware of fundamental aspects related to food and nutrition and curriculum programs of the Ministry of Education should be reformulated to overcome these deficiencies.