Evaluation of nutrition instruction in a group of Senegalese students at the secondary level

BACKGROUND: In Senegal, nutrition instruction was implanted in 1981 in the national curriculum of biology and has never been evaluated since. METHODS: The purpose of this study, was to evaluate the effect of a six weeks nutrition instruction program on improving nutrition knowledge and nutrition attitudes in an experimental group including 81 subjects aged 16.7+/-1.2 years and a control group including 80 subjects aged 15.7+/-1.3 years. These subjects came respectively from third and fourth grade. A questionnaire on knowledge and one on attitudes were administered to the experimental group, before and after the nutrition instruction, while the control group, who did not received any nutrition instruction, also answered the questionnaires. RESULTS: Results indicate that the adjusted mean knowledge posttest scores did not significantly increase in the experimental group compared to the control group. In addition, the adjusted mean attitude postscores of the boys and girls of the experimental group on the attitude scale "Nutrition affects health" were significantly higher from that of the control group. CONCLUSION: An evaluation of the nutrition curriculum and the teaching methods is suggested in order to improve the effectiveness of this nutrition program.