The Effect of Educational Program on Nutritional Knowledge and Behavior of Middle School Female Second Graders in Isfahan in 2009

Introduction: Regarding the importance of nutrition improvement in teenage girls, the purpose of this study is to determine effect of educational program on knowledge and nutritional behavior among second grade middle school female students in Isfahan. Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study, the research population being 72 students that were randomly divided into two groups, experimental and control. The instruments for data collection were a nutritional knowledge questionnaire, and 24 hour foods recall. Educational intervention was performed for experiment group as lecture and question and answers in 3 sessions(2 for students and 1 for their mothers). Data were collected twice (before and one month after intervent on) and analyzed by independent samples and paired t-tests using SPSS software. Results: Mean scores of nutritional knowledge in experimental and control groups were changed respectively to 78.59 ± 17.50 and 50.70 ±17.81, a month after intervention. Also, nutritional behavior in experimental group was improved, before intervention 83.3% of students had inappropriate nutritional behavior, but one month after that, it decreased to 36.1%. In control group this rate(88.9%) did not show any change. Conclusion: To improve the low level of knowledge and nutritional behavior in girls, the use of educational programs in puberty is necessary.