Journal List > Korean J Community Nutr > v.21(2) > 1038535

TOOLS
Oh, Gwon, Kim, Sohn, Park, and Seo: Status and Need Assessment on Nutrition & Dietary Life Education among Nutrition Teachers in Elementary, Middle and High Schools
Research Article

Korean Journal of Community Nutrition 2016; 21(2): 152-164.

Published online: 30 April 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2016.21.2.152

Status and Need Assessment on Nutrition & Dietary Life Education among Nutrition Teachers in Elementary, Middle and High Schools

Na Gyeong Oh, Su Jin Gwon, Kyung Won Kim1, Cheong Min Sohn2, Hae Ryun Park3, Jung Sook Seo

Department of Food and Nutrition, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Korea.

1Department of Food and Nutrition, Seoul Women's University, Seoul, Korea.

2Department of Food and Nutrition, Wonkwang University, Iksan, Korea.

3Department of Food and Nutrition, Myongji University, Yongin, Korea.

Corresponding author: Jung Sook Seo. Department of Food and Nutrition, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-Ro, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk 38541, Republic of Korea. Tel: (053) 810-2875, Fax: (053) 810-4768, jsseo@ynu.ac.kr

Received 28 January 2016       Revised 20 April 2016       Accepted 25 April 2016

Copyright © 2016 The Korean Society of Community Nutrition

(open-access):

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Objectives

This study was conducted to investigate the status and need for nutrition and dietary life education among nutrition teachers at schools. These characteristics were analyzed if they were different between elementary schools and middle-high schools.

Methods

Subjects were 151 nutrition teachers from 70 elementary schools, 41 middle schools and 40 high schools in 17 cities nationwide selected by two-stage stratified cluster sampling process. Survey questionnaires included the items on general characteristics, status and need assessment for nutrition and dietary life education. Chi-square test or t-test was used for data analysis by school groups.

Results

Nutrition education was implemented at 65.7% of elementary schools and 51.9% of middle-high schools. Nutrition education was mainly performed in 'discretionary activities·extracurricular activities' at elementary school and through 'newsletters, school homepage, foodservice bulletin board' at middle-high school (p<0.001). The most needed topic for nutrition education in nutrition teachers was 'healthy dietary habits and table manners' and this was not significantly different by school groups. Responses on adequate frequency (p<0.01), methods used for nutrition education (p<001), materials for nutrition education (p<0.001), information sources for nutrition education (p<0.001) were significantly different by school groups. Major tasks for activating nutrition education included 'securing the time for implementing nutrition education by reducing work loads' and 'developing standardized nutrition education materials' in schools.

Conclusions

Nutrition education at schools might be activated by improving working conditions of nutrition teachers and developing the practical programs that reflect the needs of nutrition teachers.

Keywords: nutrition teacher, nutrition education, needs assessment, children, adolescents

Figures and Tables

Table 1

General characteristics of the study subjects

kjcn-21-152-i001

1) N (%)

†) test statistic by the Fisher-Freeman-Halton test

‡) p-value by Fisher's exact test

**: p<0.01, ***: p<0.001

Table 2

Status of nutrition & dietary life education at schools

kjcn-21-152-i002

1) N (%), 2)~5) Subjects were asked to choose three responses for each question.

**: p<0.01, ***: p<0.001

†) test statistic by the Fisher-Freeman-Halton test

Table 3

Difficulty in implementing nutrition & dietary life education

kjcn-21-152-i003

1) Subjects were asked to choose three responses for each question, 2) N (%)

†) test statistic by the Fisher-Freeman-Halton test

***: p<0.001

Table 4

Needs regarding the topics of nutrition & dietary life education among nutrition teachers

kjcn-21-152-i004

1) Each item was measured by a 5 point scale from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much).

2) Mean±SD

*: p<0.05, **: p<0.01, ***: p<0.001

Table 5

Needs for nutrition & dietary life education among nutrition teachers

kjcn-21-152-i005

1~3) Subjects were asked to choose three responses for each question. 4) Mean ±SD

5) N (%)

†) test statistic by the Fisher-Freeman-Halton test

‡) p-value by Fisher's exact test

*: p<0.05, ***: p<0.001

Table 6

The tasks needed for activating nutrition & dietary life education at schools

kjcn-21-152-i006

1) t value by t-test

2) Each item was measured by a 5 point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

3) Mean ±SD

*: p<0.05

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant(13162MFDS160) from Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2013.

References

1. Yoon JS, Jeong YH, Park JA, Oh HM. The effect of individualized nutritional education on adults having two or more symptoms of chronic degenerative disease. Korean J Community Nutr. 2002; 7(6):794–802.
2. Park S, Kwon JS, Kim CI, Lee Y, Kim HK. Development of nutrition education program for hypertension based on health belief model, applying focus group interview. Korean J Community Nutr. 2012; 17(5):623–636.
3. Brug J, Campbell M, van Assema P. The application and impact of computer-generated personalized nutrition education: A review of the literature. Patient Educ Couns. 1999; 36(2):145–156.
4. Jung HJ, Moon SJ, Lee LH, Yu CH, Paik HY, Yang IS, et al. Evaluation of national school foodservice management: Labor control, menu management, and maintenance of equipments and facilities. Korean J Nutr. 1997; 30(6):704–714.
5. Mo SM, Gu JO, Park YS, Son SM, Seo JS, Yim KS. Community nutrition. Seoul: Kyomunsa;2011. p. 196–213.
6. Manios Y, Kafatos A. Health and nutrition education in elementary schools: changes in health knowledge, nutrient intakes and physical activity over a six year period. Public Health Nutr. 1999; 2(3A):445–448.
7. Pérez-Rodrigo C, Aranceta J. School-based nutrition education: lessons learned and new perspectives. Public Health Nutr. 2001; 4(1A):131–139.
8. Hwang O. The actual condition and needs on nutritional education among school nutrition teachers in Chonbuk province [master's thesis]. Chonbuk National University;2012.
9. Park YH, Kim HH, Shin KH, Shin EK, Bae IS, Lee YK. A survey on practice of nutrition education and perception for implementing nutrition education by nutrition teacher in elementary schools. Korean J Nutr. 2006; 39(4):403–416.
10. Kyung MS. Analysis of nationwide survey of school nutrition teachers' perception and needs on school nutrition education [master's thesis]. Paichai University;2012.
11. Blom-Hoffman J, Kelleher C, Power TJ, Leff SS. Promoting healthy food consumption among young children: Evaluation of a multi-component nutrition education program. J School Psychol. 2004; 42(1):45–60.
12. Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Korea Health Statistics [internet]. Ministry of Health and Welfare & Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;2014. updated 2014 Dec 11. cited 2015 Feb 1. Available from: https://knhanes.cdc.go.kr/knhanes/index.do.
13. Cheong HS, Lee JS. Study on nutrition education and perception of nutrition teachers and dietitians in Gyeongnam area. Korean J Food Cookery Sci. 2012; 28(3):229–240.
14. Kim HS. A survey on nutrition education activities by nutrition teachers of elementary school in Incheon area [master's thesis]. Inha University;2012.
15. Lim JY, Kim KW. Job satisfaction, work performance, work satisfaction, perceived needs and self-evaluation of knowledge and skills of nutrition teachers in Gyeonggi area. Korean J Community Nutr. 2014; 19(1):60–70.
16. Kim JY, Lee YE. Job satisfaction and engagement of school food service dietitians and nutrition teachers in Chungbuk. J Korean Soc Food Sci Nutr. 2014; 43(6):943–954.
17. Yoon HS, Ro JS, Her ES. Perception of elementary school teachers about nutrition education in the Kyungnam area. Korean J Community Nutr. 2001; 6(1):84–90.
18. Kim JY, Sim KH. A survey on dietary education needs for implementing dietary education by teachers in elementary schools. Korean J Food Cookery Sci. 2012; 28(2):183–193.
19. Bilder CR, Loughin TM. Testing for marginal independence between two categorical variables with multiple responses. Biometrics. 2004; 60(1):241–248.
20. Choi MK, Bae YJ, Kim MH, In SJ. A survey of the needs of nutrition education based on analysis of eating habits and nutrition knowledge among middle school students in Kyung-Gi province. J Korean Diet Assoc. 2010; 16(2):133–145.
21. Park KS, Cho SH. Study on job training for specialty enhancement of school nutrition teachers In Gyeongbuk area. J Korean Diet Assoc. 2011; 17(4):403–415.
22. Yeon JY, Lee SK, Kang BW. The use frequency and amount of food sources of sodium and knowledge requirement, and job satisfaction of dietitians and nutrition teachers according to the school types in Busan. Korean J Community Nutr. 2014; 19(2):198–211.
23. Kyeon YK, Jang YA, Kim JW. Application of a practical nutrition education program, KHIDIKIDS, for the improvement of dietary attitudes and habits elementary students. Korean J Nutr. 2006; 39(8):808–816.
24. Kim HJ, Kim HA. Perception of nutritional education among school administrators, parents, and school nutrition teachers at an elementary school. J Korean Diet Assoc. 2012; 18(4):385–399.
25. Kim MS, Kim HJ, Lee YE. Operation and perception on dietary life education and nutrition counseling of elementary school in Chungbuk province. J Korean Soc Food Sci Nutr. 2013; 42(12):2049–2067.
26. Kim JM, Lee KA, Park YK, Lee KH, Oh SW, Lee HS. Development of an accreditation system for dietary and nutrition related education resources. J Nutr Health. 2014; 47(2):145–156.
TOOLS
ORCID iDs

Jung Sook Seo
https://orcid.org/http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8963-1375

Similar articles