ارزيابي آگاهي ، نگرش و عملكرد دانش آموزان مقاطع راهنمايي و دبيرستان منطقه 13 تهران در زمينه تغذي سالم

Knowledge, attitude and practice of guidance school and high school students in district-13 of Tehran about healthy diet

Introduction: The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of adolescent students aged 10-18 studying in guidance and high schools of district 13 of Tehran, about healthy diet. Material and Methods: This study was undertaken on 7669 adolescent students (4070 boys and 3599 girls) of 22 guidance and high schools residing in district 13 of Tehran. A questionnaire whose reliability and validity were assessed according to specialist recommendations and pretest and post-test were used. The maximum score was calculated according to the number of questions in each part. The key questions were determined by factor analysis. Results: The mean age of the adolescents was 14±1 year. Higher percent of girls had good knowledge (82% of girls vs. 75% of boys, P<0.05). Higher percent of boys had good attitude (39% of boys vs. 33% of girls, P<0.05) and good practice (25% of boys vs. 15% of girls, P<0.05). According to the results, 35% of adolescents do not know that sweets increase weight and 65.4% of adolescents do not know that sausage has cholesterol. 28% of adolescents prefer puff consuming to almond and pistachio and 37.5% prefer whole grain biscuits to the creamed wafers. Only 4.5% of students do not consume beverage by foods. Conclusion: According to this study, a low percentage of adolescents have good practice and their attitude and practice is not according to their nutritional knowledge. These results show the necessity of nutrition intervention in adolescents.