Education as an effective strategyto promote nutritional knowledge, attitudes,and behaviors in street children

Background Lack of nutritional knowledge and ineffective attitudes can complicate the problems faced by thisgroup of street children and have significant effects on their behaviors. This study aimed to examine the effect ofnutrition education on nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of street children in Kerman in 2021.Methods This experimental study was conducted on 70 street children supported by Aftab Children Support Centerin Kerman in 2021. The participants were selected using convenience sampling and were divided into two interventionand control groups using a random number table. A nutrition distance education program was implementedusing an educational compact disk (CD) for the participants in the intervention group, while the children in the controlgroup did not receive any training. The children’s nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors were assessedbefore and one month after the intervention using the Nutritional Behavior Questionnaire. The collected data wereanalyzed with SPSS software (version 22) using the chi-square test, paired and independent samples t-test, and analysisof covariance (ANCOVA).Results The results revealed a significant difference in nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors after theintervention (p < 0.001) due to the effect of the nutrition training program. Accordingly, the mean scores of theparticipants in the intervention group for nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors increased by 11.45, 14.80,and 6.05 units after the intervention compared to their scores before the intervention. Furthermore, the effects of thetraining program on the participants’ nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors were 89.6%, 91.5%, and 64.3%,respectively.Conclusion The findings of this study concluded that training based on nutrition education improved the children’snutritional knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Thus, the officials in charge of promoting the health of vulnerablegroups in the community need to provide the necessary facilities to implement effective training programs for streetchildren and encourage them to participate in training programs.

Education as an effective strategyto promote nutritional knowledge, attitudes,and behaviors in street children Keywords:

Nutrition Education , Nutritional Knowledge , Attitudes , Behaviors , Street Children