Abstract:

Adolescence is an important life period and has crucial importance for the development of appropriate eating habits and a healthy diet. Dietary and educational interventions may help improving diet and thus may provide prevention from the development of lifestyle diseases during both adolescence and in future adulthood. This educational intervention study with a pretest-posttest design study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of different nutrition education methods on nutrition knowledge levels in high school students. A total of 216 students from 3 high schools in Usküdar, Istanbul were randomly assigned to three different educational intervention method groups (video-mediated, peer-directed, and visual aids), each consisting of 72 students to compare the effectiveness with the traditional education method. Before and after each education, the nutrition knowledge level of adolescents was evaluated with the Adolescent Nutrition Knowledge Level Questionnaire (ANKQ). It is determined that all of the intervention methods provide significantly increased post-test total scores when compared to pre-test scores in the ANKQ (p<0.05). Peer-led and visual tools mediated nutrition education are significantly related to increased post-test scores compared to traditional nutrition education (p<0.05). Repetitive interventions and follow-up for long-term efficacy and evaluation of behavioral changes are recommended for future studies.

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