Nutrition in the community : development and implementation of a programme for parents of primary school children

Abstract

Children's eating habits today will have short and long term implications on their health. Thus, the role of parents as primary food providers is crucial. The aim of this study was to assess the nutrition knowledge and skills of parents of Year 5 Primary school children through the use of a needs assessment questionnaire which then helped the researcher to develop and implement a pilot nutrition course of three sessions of 1 Yz hours each. The course was held at the Siggiewi Local Council Hall and its goal was to increase the nutrition knowledge of these parents and to demonstrate appropriate food choice and preparation skills. A pre- and post-questionnaire was used, to assess the effectiveness of this pilot course and, therefore, determine whether similar courses should be held in other localities throughout Malta and Gozo. Overall results indicated that both the parents of Year 5 Primary school children who took part in the initial needs assessment questionnaire and also the parents who attended the course (at baseline) had a moderate to high nutritional knowledge. However, there were a few areas in both questionnaires where the parents seemed to have some misconceptions or doubts as to how to answer correctly. On the whole, the pre- and post-test questionnaire indicated that the nutrition course was effective enough to increase the nutritional knowledge and food choice skills of the parents in at least eleven of the items. This suggests that such nutrition courses can be beneficial and should be made available to parents in different localities around Malta and Gozo.