Abstract

Background

 School programs effectively inform the students about healthy body weight and nutrition to improve their health-related knowledge, thus they may have positive impact on the students obesity-related dietary behaviors and healthy lifestyle. However, in order to develop an effective educational program, it is imperative to determine the obesity-related nutrition knowledge that the students have.

Objective: This cross-sectional study aims to examine the levels of obesity-related nutrition knowledge possessed by secondary schools students in Hebron and evaluate the relationship between  the nutrition knowledge with dietary practices.

Methods: A total of 469 students average age of 16±0.671 years who were randomly selected from four different areas in Hebron, following the stratified random sampling procedures. A dichotomous questionnaire, consisted of 16 items, was used to investigate the nutrition and obesity knowledge. Data collection included: age, gender, weight classification, parent’s level of education and eating behaviours.

Results: The analysis showed low levels of obesity-related knowledge among the study sample, as indicated by the low mean scores of students’ correct answers (9.7±3.3). Significant higher mean scores were found in favor of female students (p<0.05); scientific stream students (p<0.01), with no significant correlations with students' dietary practices.

Conclusion: This highlights the need to develop interventional and educational school programs in Palestine. This would increase students' awareness of obesity-related knowledge, and at the same time, promote the idea of a healthy diet and lifestyle to them

العنوان

The Palestinian Medical and Pharmaceutical Journal (PMPJ)

الناشر

An-Najah National University

بلد الناشر

فلسطين

نوع المنشور

إلكتروني فقط

المجلد

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السنة

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الصفحات

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