Abstract:

Objective To investigate the impact of nutrition education through Child-to-Child （CTC）approach on the diet behaviors among preschool children. Methods Two kindergartens in Shanghai were selected as intervention kindergarten and control kindergarten respectively. One hundred and twelve children in higher grade in the intervention kindergarten were served as experiment group, who received nutrition education from kindergarten teachers, and disseminated nutrition knowledge to the other 195 children in lower grade in intervention kindergarten (affected group) through CTC approach. Children in control kindergarten in the same grade were served as experiment group controls (n=74) and affected group controls (n=207) respectively, and no nutrition education intervention was conducted. Self-designed Knowledge-Attitude-Practice (KAP) questionnaire was adopted to evaluate the changes in nutrition and healthy diet knowledge, attitude towards food and nutrition and diet behaviors before and after intervention. Results After intervention, the KAP scores in experiment group and affected group increased to some extent, the pass rates of score of nutrition and healthy diet knowledge significantly increased (P<0.01), and the attitude towards food and nutrition and diet behaviors improved. After intervention, the incidences of picky eating in experiment group and affected group were significantly lower than those in the corresponding controls (P<0.05 for both), the incidences of milk consumption every day in both groups were significantly higher than those in the corresponding controls (P<0.05, P<0.01), and the incidence of having balanced breakfast in affected group was significantly higher than that in affected group controls (P<0.05). Conclusion Application of CTC approach in nutrition education may yield favorable effect and advantage in promoting diet behaviors among preschool children.

Key words: Child-to-Child approach, preschool children, nutrition education