Health Education Interventions on Student Nutrition: A Systematic Review

Designing, implementation, and evaluation of nutritional education programs in schools are appropriate solution for promoting student's health and public awareness. The aim of this study was systematic review of health education interventions on nutrition habits of students from 2000 to 2009. SID and Iranmedex databases were systematically searched for the articles containing the term "educational interventions related to nutrition among students "in title and abstract and 23 full text papers having entry criteria were reviewed. Out of 23 studies, 17 caused knowledge promotion, 7 had positive effects on attitude of subjects, and 14 studies improved nutrition behavior of students. Participatory methods such as group discussion and role playing as well as the visual methods such as videos and images have been more efficient in providing educational materials related to student's nutrition. Reviews of interventions shows that role playing is more effective in promoting nutritional knowledge, attitude, and practice than lecture method. Lecture and group discussion methods were more efficient than the leaflet, tutorial, and manual. In order to improve effectiveness of interventions; application of health education and health promotion theories and models such as Transtheoretical, health belief, planned behavior, BASNEF, PRECEDE – PROCEED, and other healthy lifestyle promoting models are recommended in interventions made on students nutrition.