Impact of nutrition and health education on rural pre-school children
Puri, R.; Mehta, S.
Indian Pediatrics 31(1): 9-14
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-6061 PMID: 7883332 Document Number: 427304
155 pre-school children (24-60 months old) from families of low socio-economic status and attending 8 creches in villages around Chandigarh, India were studied. Children received informal nutrition and health education (NHE) relating to personal hygiene (PH), food hygiene (FH) and recognition of foods (RF) daily from creche supervisors for 12 months. Appropriate teaching materials (songs, rhymes and roleplay) were developed specifically for this purpose. Checklists were used to evaluate the impact of NHE. Childrens' knowledge of PH increased significantly in the lowest income group. All childrens' knowledge of FH and RF increased significantly. It was suggested that this was due to enthusiastic teaching and involvement of the children by providing an interactive and stimulating environment. Results indicate that pre-school children can be educated in NHE provided participatory and appropriate material and methods are used.