INFLUENCE OF EDUCATION ON KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES OF STUDENTS OF ISFAHAN UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCE TOWARD TRAFFIC LIGHT INSERTED ON FOOD LABELING

Background and Aim: Education on the proper nutrition have an important role to reduce the rate of the non-communicable diseases. It was shown the amount of risk factors of non-communicable diseases such as energy, salt, sugar, fat and trans fatty acid on the traffic light inserted on the food labelling. Methods: This project was a quasi-experimental study that performed by random sampling of 379 students of nine active schools in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. The knowledge, attitude and practices of the students toward the traffic light were assessed by self-administered and structured questionnaire. Results: Before education, the average of the scores for the knowledge, attitude and practice was 1.12±0.84, 14.44±4 and 2.25±2.2, respectively. Afterwards, the scores was improved to 11.72±0.75, 18.67±3.18 and 17.69±4.7 after education. Significant difference was observed in the scores of the knowledge, attitude and practice of students before and after education (p<0.05).Conclusion: : Education of the traffic light has significant role in the improvement of the knowledge, attitude and to some extent of the practice of students in the selection of the proper food product. It is recommended that the healthcare organizations have more emphasis and intervention in the health education about the procedure of controlling and prevention of non-communicable diseases to change the behavior and practice of community.

Keywords:

Knowledge , Attitude , Practice , Traffic Light , Student , Isfahan