Nutrition instruction in a group of Senegalese students at the secondary level: assessment of knowledge and attitude objectives

Background: In Senegal, nutrition instruction was implanted in 1981 in the national curriculum of biology and has never been evaluated since. Methods: The purpose of this study, was to evaluate the effect of a six wee ks nutrition instruction program on improving nutrition knowledge and nutri tion attitudes in an experimental group including 81 subjects aged 16.7+/-1 .2 years and a control group including 80 subjects aged 15.7+/-1.3 years. T hese subjects came respectively from third and fourth grade. A questionnair e on knowledge and one on attitudes were administered to the experimental g roup, before and after the nutrition instruction, while the control group, who did not received any nutrition instruction, also answered the questionn aires. Results: Results indicate that the adjusted mean knowledge posttest scores did not significantly increase in the experimental group compared to the co ntrol group. In addition, the adjusted mean attitude postscores of the boys and girls of the experimental group on the attitude scale "Nutrition affec ts health" were significantly higher from that of the control group. Conclusion: An evaluation of the nutrition curriculum and the teaching meth ods is suggested in order to improve the effectiveness of this nutrition pr ogram.