2018

Lebanese Medical Journal • Mars 2019 • Vol 67 (Abstracts) S31

NutRItION EDuCAtION IN SELECtED NuRSERIESProcedures and Outcomeshttp://www.lebanesemedicaljournal.org/articles/67-A/doc15.pdf

Abboud R, Seklawy V, Hanna R, Mounayar R*

background • Dietary habits are established in childhood and are often maintained intoadulthood (thompson RA et al., 2005). Early childhood is the perfect time to teach childrengood eating habits, especially in nurseries where they spent most of their time (Dosso JA et

al., 2017). Currently, the nutrients intake of many children does not meet the dietary guide-lines (Pem D et al., 2015). Overweight/obesity is common, and increases rapidly in earlychildhood. thus, nutrition education and interventions are key to improve children’s health;nursery educators being the main target (Al Mohtadi RM and Al Zboon hS, 2017).

Objective • this study aims to determine the effectiveness of a nutrition education inter-vention on nutrition status of children aged one to three years old and nutritional knowledgeof nursery educators in private and public Lebanese nurseries.

Design • 137 children were assessed at baseline. Fifty-six of them were included in thestudy. Pre and post surveys were conducted including a demographic questionnaireaddressed to nurseries’ directors and a nutritional standardized questionnaire addressed tonurseries’ educators. the intervention consisted of nutrition education trainings, anthro-pometric measurements for children and nutrition activities program during the six-monthperiod.

Results • Results indicated an improvement in the full intervention nursery versus the mini-mal intervention nurseries. the prevalence of overweight children was 44.6% and 36.6%after intervention with an improvement of 8%. Post intervention, the percentage of stuntedchildren remained the same in all nurseries; children in healthy range increased from 55.3%to 62.5% and the percentage of children in excessive range decreased by 4%. the interven-tion made a significant impact on the nutrition knowledge (p value = 0.064), with a 6.13%improvement between pre and post results. Results demonstrated also a lack of conformitybetween the offered nutrient intakes and the recommended corresponding references. thisnon-compliance is due to a deficiency of recommended energy (770.05 kcal vs. 1100 kcal)and carbohydrates intake (101.86g vs. 130g), whereas proteins (14.0%) and fat (33%) intakeappears to be consistent. the dietary patterns of children revealed a carbohydrate-based dietwith very few consuming a variety of fruit and vegetables. Some changes were made in thedietary choices of the children after the intervention, with the inclusion of more fruits andvegetables and decreased intake of carbohydrate-rich food.

Conclusion • Results analysis indicated a need to enhance nurseries educators’ nutritionknowledge and to improve the quality and quantity of food provided to children. A typicalmenu and directed children activities might be a good additional approach to enhance nutri-tion and behavioral outcomes. Parent’s involvement seems a good axis for future research.

Keywords : nursery; children nutrition; nursery educator; nutrition educatio; nutrition status; nutri-

tion behavior; nutrition intervention

*Lebanese University

Faculty of Sciences

Fanar. Lebanon