Assessing the effect of education on knowledge, attitude and practice of guidance school students about milk and dairy products

Abstract

Introduction: The balanced nutritional diet and intake of milk and dairy products is one of the main determinants of child health and their success in school. This study was undertaken to determine the effect of education on KAP of middle school girls about milk and dairy products.

Methods and Materials: This quasi experimental study was carried out on 106 second grade middle school students which were matched by parent education level, job and family size. Subjects were divided to case (group two classes with 52 students) and control (group two classes with 54 students) randomly. Data were collected with a questionnaire which was included four parts: demographic questions and questions regard knowledge, attitude and practice of students about milk and dairy products. In the pretest both group completed the questionnaire. According to the results an educational interventional program were designed and implemented for case group. After two months post test were carried out. Data were analyzed by SPSS soft ware and suitable tests such as paired t-test were used as well.

Results: The paired t–test showed a significant increase in scores of knowledge, attitude and practice of case group after intervention (P= 0.000). But increase in scores of their practice was not significant (P= 0.06). There was no significant increase in scores of attitude (P= 0.11) and practice (P= 0.68) of control group and the score of their knowledge was increased significantly (P= 0.000). However the difference between increase scores in case and control groups was significant (P= 0.000).

Conclusion: According to the results education has a positive effect on KAP of middle school girls about intake of milk and dairy products and due to low KAP scores of students, seams mass health education should be provided for all students.