Nutrition education in India—Impact on knowledge, behavior, and health status of students

Abstract We conducted a baseline survey in 2900 households drawn from 2 slums and 6 community development blocks (see note)—that is, 2 community development blocks from each of the 3 districts selected out of the 15 districts of Tamil Nadu (which is one of the 22 states [provinces] in India). Based on the findings of the survey, we identified priority concepts in nutrition and health education, and environmental sanitation. We incorporated these concepts into the existing elementary school curriculum and developed suitable instructional materials. We then provided a 5-day orientation for all of the 6000 teachers from the 660 elementary schools in the selected 6 community development blocks and 2 slums. The orientation training was carried out by instructors who had bachelor's degrees in education and master's degrees in nutrition. The trained elementary school teachers, in turn, taught the nutrition and health, and environmental sanitation lessons to their classes. We evaluated the knowledge of the children and teachers; the practices of the mothers with regard to food, health, and hygiene; and the anthropometric and clinical status of the children. For purposes of this study we limited our evaluations of the school children to students in classes 3–5 (equivalent to grades 3–5 in the U.S.). The encouraging results from this study pave the way for further expansion of the program throughout the state and in other states of the Indian Union Republic.