Improving Health Status of Students in Less Developed Areas in China-An Nutrition Education-based Intervention Program

INTRODUCTION: To respond to the need for improving dietary management for children in poor areas of China, this hybrid program incorporates nutrition education interventions with a Chinese government financial intervention from 2012 to 2013 in an effort to improve the nutritional status of 2046 students from 9 primary schools in poverty-stricken counties of Guangxi and Yunnan Provinces.

APPROACH:  Interventions included lectures on nutrition and distribution of locally appropriate educational materials on nutrition. School cafeteria staff were trained to prepare nutritionally complete meals and provided with a government subsidy of 3 Chinese yuan per day per student to purchase food. A program evaluation was conducted to compare health outcomes with baseline data.

RESULTS:  Preliminary data showed improvement in dietary habits scores (14.4±3.1before vs 16.9±3.7after), nutritional knowledge scores (8.3±4.1 vs 17.8±5.8) and attitude scores (11.0±5.1 vs 17.7±4.7) (all p<0.05, the three scores were evaluated by students and parents on questionnaires). The wasting rate (Weight for height-WHZ) was reduced significantly from 9.1% to 5.6% (p<0.05) compared with baseline while anemia rates had no significant change after intervention.

DISCUSSION:  Nourishment during school hours is critical. The program seeks to establish evidence-based approaches and to provide interventions in order to supply reference data for the newly initiated policy to improve rural area students’ nutrition and health status. Government financial policy on dietary improvement will be more impactful to combine with educational interventions.