Evaluation of Nutritional Assistance Education Models: A Systematic Review

Background: The establishment of good eating practices will impact lifelong nutritional habits and overall health that begins in infancy. This study was conducted to evaluate effective educational models to increase parents' knowledge and awareness in the field of nutritional assistance to toddlers through published articles in the time frame of 2010-2021. Methods: PubMed, Sciencedirect, Web of science, Cochrane, and Wiley online library were searched according to Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines to identify published studies from January 2010 to December 2021 based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Two authors independently extracted the related data. The data were synthesized thematically and also by collecting the main findings, the design and the applied interventions. The quality of the included articles was assessed using the quality assessment tool of the Effective Public Healthcare Panacea Project (EPHPP) and McMaster critical appraisal tool.    Results: Search results from five databases yielded 842 articles. A total of seven articles met the inclusion criteria. According to the articles included in this review, the number of participants in these studies varied from 20 to 300 mothers of toddlers. The study designs included randomized controlled trial, Quasi experimental, cross-sectional, and qualitative.   Home talks, nutrition education and counseling were among the educational methods used. The duration of intervention varied from the shortest 2 weeks up to 9 months long. Home talks seem to be a more effective method with direct (teacher-directed), interactive (discussion, sharing), and experiential (learner-centered, activity oriented) delivery methods.       Conclusion: Three out of the seven studies had strong quality, and the rest was moderate. The evidence presented in this review has identified characteristics that may contribute to the effectiveness of interventions in increasing parents' knowledge and awareness in nutritional assistance for toddlers. The overall evidence from this review reveals the need to improve the standards and procedures in intervention design, in randomized controlled trials, to improve their effectiveness.