Nutrition Education for Eating Promotion for Supporting Staff of the Faculty of Public Health, Khon Kaen University

Abstract

This pretest-posttest study involved 31 (68.9%) supporting staff from a total of 45 persons at the faculty in
a nutritional education program. The know-how about nutrition, food consumption pattern and the nutritional status
was assessed before and after the intervention. The nutritional education program included providing know-how
about food and eating habits which are good for maintaining a good health. Participants were asked to assess
their nutritional status themselves. Consumption of vegetables had been promoted and a contest about preparing
healthy dishes had been organized. The intervention had been performed for 8 months. By means of
questionnaires the know-how about nutrition, food frequency, food pattern and physical exercise had been
compiled. Nutritional status, energy and nutrients daily intake was obtained by the 24-hours recall method for
three times per week as for 2 working- days and 1 weekend day. Conventional descriptive statistics were used for
data processing. Also the 1st and the 3rd quartile in the distribution of important variables were calculated. The
paired t-test was performed for the comparison before and after implementing the nutritional education program.
From the supporting staff 41.9% were males and 58.1% females. Less than 50% of the participants were
in the age range between 31 to 40 years. Average nutritional knowledge score at the beginning of the intervention
was 17.13 and increased statistically significantly to 20.84 at the end of the study. The majority of participants did
know quite well about the benefit of nutrients and food safety. But some did not know well about food rich in
cholesterol and could not easily name food items more healthy than others. The majority of participants had 3
meals per day and ate more during the weekend than at working-days. Sixty three percent of participants
exercised regularly. The staff consumed vegetables and fruits almost everyday. The majority did not eat nonpolished
rice and drank milk. Fried dishes were taken 2-3 times a week. Few participants admitted that they drink
alcohol and consume energetic beverages, and usually have meals to which monosodium glutamate had been
added and drank soft drinks once a week. Energy and nutrients intake covered 91.23% of the Recommended
Dietary Allowance (RDA) at the beginning of the intervention and decreased to 78.51 % at the end of the program.
The contribution to total energy intake from carbohydrate was 57%, from fat 24% and from protein 17%. The
nutritional status of 45.2% of the staff was normal at the beginning of the intervention and the proportion slightly
decreased to 42.0% at the end of program. This was due to the fact that the risk for obesity increased from 9.7%
to 16.1% but on the other hand obesity as such decreased from 32.2% to 29.0%. About 30% of the participants
had a normal waist circumference at the beginning and 22.6% at the end.
It is concluded that nutritional know-how and a better understanding about the quality of food items should
be promoted as well as an increase in physical activity in order to maintain a normal nutritional status and health.