Systematic Review: Effect of Health Education Intervention on Improving Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Adolescents on Malnutrition

Abstract

Adolescence is a phase in the life cycle of human beings. Adequate knowledge, attitudes and practices towards malnutrition are necessary for proper growth and development and for their future children. This systematic review aimed to determine the effect of health education intervention to improve the knowledge, attitudes and practices of adolescents on malnutrition. PubMed, Scopus, clinical trials, CINAHL, SAGE, Science Direct and Medline were searched according to Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and Meat-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines to identified published studies from January 2013 to December 2019 based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of eight studies were included in this review. Data extraction was done based on randomized controlled trial only. Three out of the eight studies had low risk of bias, the overall evidence of the study was moderate. Findings from this study suggest that health education intervention among adolescents have significantly improved their knowledge, attitudes and practices. More specific interventions should be conducted in low and middle income countries since they bear more of the burden of malnutrition globally.

Burden and Predictors of Malnutrition Among Indian Adolescents (10–19 Years): Insights From Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey Data

“…In the long term, undernutrition among adolescents is associated with poor general health, and less economic productivity ( 4 , 5 ). On the other hand, over-nutrition contributes to the early development of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart diseases, sleep apnoea, cancer ( 7 ).…”

Impacts of a School-Based Intervention That Incorporates Nutrition Education and a Supportive Healthy School Canteen Environment among Primary School Children in Malaysia

“…A systematic review reported that interventions focused on nutrition and health education are effective in increasing knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding nutrition among adolescents [27]. Nutrition education interventions that focused on improving nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and practices (K.A.P) and reducing overweight and obesity rates among primary school children have been carried out in Malaysia [20,28,29]. The interventions were mainly focused on educating the children about healthy eating and physical activity.…”

“…The interventions were mainly focused on educating the children about healthy eating and physical activity. The interventions showed improvements in knowledge and attitudes regarding nutrition at post-intervention and 6-month follow-up, but no significant improvement in nutrition practices [28]. In order to improve nutrition practices, Tee et al [3] suggested that an effective nutrition intervention should consist of content and teaching approaches that are developmentally applicable for the children and that tackle the changes in the school environment.…”

The role of educating health-care personnel in prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of COVID-19: A narrative mini review

“…Similarly, this article's findings proved that the general awareness about malnutrition among the target populations was strengthened due to the educational interventions. [ 42 ]…”