Promotion of Healthy Eating in Spanish High Schools

Barriers to home food preparation and healthy eating among university students in Catalonia

Despite college being a critical life stage for developing enduring healthy dietary behaviours, Spanish university students show poor adherence to a healthy diet. Since research has shown an association between home cooking and healthy eating, the aim of this study was to analyse the main barriers that influence home food preparation and healthy eating among students at three Catalan universities. Focus groups, the photovoice technique and a validated questionnaire were used. Six focus groups (10 female; 14 male; aged 18-22) were conducted. NVivo9, was used to analyse the transcripts using an inductive thematic analysis. In two focus groups, the photovoice technique was used to further explore their perceptions about a healthy diet and their barriers for home cooking and healthy eating. The validated questionnaire was sent out to obtain data on students' diet quality, food environment and cooking self-efficacy for the focus group's design. We found that lack of motivation was the main barrier to healthy eating and home cooking, which was further influenced by the lack of cooking self-efficacy. Young adults lacked the knowledge and skills to prepare quick, affordable, and nutritious meals. Hence, even lack of time was cited as a primary barrier, time constraints seemed to be related to personal priorities. Students did not feel motivated to eat healthy and adopt time-deepening behaviours that influence food-choices. Thus, further research is required to develop context-specific culinary interventions that enhance students' cooking self-efficacy and identify strategies for encouraging students to adopt healthier eating habits.

Breakfast intake and associated factors and barriers among tertiary institution students in the Western Region, Ghana

BACKGROUND

Breakfast is considered the day's most important meal. Skipping breakfast consumption is detrimental to health and intellectual performance. University life has tight schedules and rigorous intellectual activities often very early in the morning. This study aimed at assessing breakfast intake and its associated factors among the students of Takoradi Technical University (TTU).

METHODS

This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Data was collected from 347 students in TTU using pre-tested questionnaire. Data collected were analysed using STATA v17. It employed descriptive and inferential statistics such as logistic regression. P-value less than 0.05 was set as statistical significance at 95% confidence interval.

RESULTS

Regular breakfast was taken by 35.7% of the students. Higher odds of regular breakfast intake were found among respondents aged 25-29 years (AOR = 3.13, 95%CI = 1.57-6.24) and those who buy their breakfast (AOR = 5.13, 95%CI = 2.16-12.19). However, lower odds of regular breakfast consumption were found among respondents who were females (AOR = 0.40, 95%CI = 0.18-0.85). Barriers to regular breakfast intake included negative mood, insufficient funds, health condition, weight management, religious reasons such as fasting, limited time/unfavourable academic schedules, daily activities/workload, and cost of food on campus.

CONCLUSION

The study stressed on the need for external and personal factors such as sex, age, religion, limited time/unfavourable academic schedules among others that hinder habitual breakfast intake to be addressed adopting innovative approach such as peer education and campaigns. University management should implement favourable policies on academic schedules, canteens/cafeterias, less stringent regulation on cooking at halls of residence.

Outcome of structured health education intervention for obesity-risk reduction among junior high school students: Stratified cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) in South India

BACKGROUND

Obesity has been identified as a serious global health concern whose prevalence doubles almost every 10 years. Health education regarding physical activity and healthy diet imparted to adolescents could prove to be fruitful in reducing obesity-risk. Objectives of this study were to evaluate the effect of health education intervention on knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) regarding obesity-risk reduction and to estimate the postinterventional change in body mass index (BMI) and total body fat (%) among adolescent school children in South India.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Stratified cluster randomized controlled trial was carried out among 398 students recruited at baseline including 206 and 192 participants in intervention and control group respectively selected through simple random sampling from eligible government aided and private schools to assess KAP regarding physical activity and diet using pretested and validated questionnaire by making three school visits 6 months apart. Anthropometric measurements were recorded in first and third visit only, while health education intervention was given in first visit to intervention and third visit to control group after taking their responses on the questionnaire. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 15.

RESULTS

Overall dropout rate was 13.5% with dropout in intervention and control group being 12.6% and 14.5% respectively, making 180 participants in intervention and 164 in control group available for analysis. Mean physical activity KAP score improved significantly from 16.19 ± 4.61 to 19.46 ± 10.07 in intervention group. Mean dietary KAP score also improved significantly from 21.38 ± 4.07 to 23.43 ± 4.53 in intervention group (p < 0.001). Mean BMI decreased significantly within intervention group (p < 0.001) as compared to control group (p = 0.908). Based on cut-off level for total body fat (%) to categorize obesity-risk among participants, statistically significant decline in proportions from 26.1% to 13.3% was observed in intervention group (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Results depicted better KAP in intervention group than control group in all the three visits while it improved significantly within both groups. Hence, the health education was found to be effective in improving the overall KAP regarding modifiable risk factors of obesity among the study participants. Further studies to screen the adolescents for obesity-risk and successive health education sessions must be carried within schools in order to bring about change in knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding obesity-risk.

Attitude towards the Promotion of Healthy Eating among Secondary School Teachers—Construction and Validation of a Questionnaire

Health promotion activities in secondary schools are scarce and have little involvement of the teaching staff. Most often, activities are developed from the curriculum that appears in school materials, with little capacity for adaptation and innovation. The aim of this study was to construct and validate a tool to find out teachers’ attitudes towards activities to promote healthy eating in secondary schools. For this purpose, a descriptive study was conducted. The total sample of the study consisted of 200 teachers from secondary schools. Internal consistency was determined by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient globally and by dimension, and with the corrected item–test correlation. The construct validity of the questionnaire was assessed by means of an exploratory factor analysis, for which the principal components method with Varimax rotation was used. A Likert-type scale with nine items and four response options about attitude was designed. The exploratory factor analysis showed a nine-factor solution, of which two had eigenvalues greater than 1. These two factors explained 63.4% of the variance. The Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency index obtained for the global scale was 0.81, and 0.75 and 0.85 for each component. The results obtained with this structure confirmed an adequate reliability and validity of the questionnaire.