Community Based Nutrition Education for Promoting Nutritional Status of Children under Three Years of Age in Rural Areas of Mahottari District of Nepal

Abstract

Introduction: Maternal and child mortality have declined significantly in Nepal to the extent that Nepal is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals for maternal and child mortality. Similar improvements have not been seen in general nutrition status of them. Objective of this study was to evaluate a nutrition-education intervention designed to improve nutritional status (reduce stunting, wasting and underweight) of children. Materials and Methods: It was an intervention with separate sample pretest posttest design. Two groups of Village Development Committee (VDC) from Mahottari district were recruited as interventional and control areas. The intervention was a 12-months nutrition education program and comprised of twelve times with 2-3 hour nutrition lectures and discussion classless conducted by the Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs). Results: The Present study found that number of underweight children increased by 7.6% in control group while it decreased by 17.7% in intervention group from baseline to endline in both groups. So, intervention programme was able to decrease the number of underweight children significantly. Study shows that wasting status of children increased by 11.4% in control group from baseline to endline period. While in intervention group wasting status of children decreased by more than 5% from baseline to endline period. Conclusion: Nutrition education intervention was effective to reduce wasting and underweight but did not reduce the stunting status of children. Stunting reflects failure to receive adequate nutrition over a long period of time and is affected by recurrent and chronic illness. Findings suggested that nutrition programme of longer duration should be implemented to control the stunting status of children.

Analysis of Early Childhood Teacher's Concept Maps on the Contents of Early Childhood Nutrition Education

“…또한 과일과 채소의 종류 및 색, 질감, 형태의 특성 및 섭취의 필요성 등 구체적인 내용을 보다 심층적으로 다루기도 한다 (Burney & Haughton, 2002;Dunn et al, 2004;Valentine, 2000;Witt & Dunn, 2012). 특히 외국의 경우 특 이할만한 점은 이러한 유아영양교육을 가정 및 지역사회와 연계하여 유아 뿐 아니라 학부모의 영양지식과 기술 향상, 유아의 음식섭취 및 선호에 대한 자기조절력 향상, 식사에 대한 긍정적 유아-부모 간 상호작용 향상과 같은 내용 (Chan, 1999;Coleman, Horodynski, Contreras, & Hoerr, 2005;Goodwin et al, 2015;Horodynski & Stommel, 2005;Yadav et al, 2014) (박금미, 2005; 신동주, 1997; 엄정애, 이성희, 2004; 이기완, 남혜원, 명춘옥, 박영심, 2005; 이영미, 이기완, 1996), 기관의 급·간식 실태 혹은 영양교육 실태 및 요 구에 관한 연구 (배영미, 안숙자, 1995; 이기현, 2009; 이영미, 2005; 정미선, 김남희, 2011), 유아영 양교육프로그램 개발 및 효과에 관한 연구 (강현주, 김경미, 김경자, 류은순, 2000; 박상현 등, 2011; 서주영, 2009; 신은경, 2005; 이현옥, 2007) (배영미, 안숙자, 1995; 이영미, 이기완, 1996) 교사들을 위한 유아영양 교육 연수 기회 부족으로 인해 올바른 영양교육을 실시하지 못하고 있는 실정이다 (박상현 등, 2011; 이기현, 2009; 정미선, 김남희, 2011) …”