• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.192-205
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• 1998

The purpose of this survey was to investigate the status of dietitians' nutrition management in the elementary school lunch program. 84 elementary schools in Pusan that operated the conventional school lunch program system participated in this survey. They were grouped into schools that had started the school lunch program gofore('Previously") and after 1996("Newly"). 84.5% of dietitians were 20-29 years old and 44% of them had a career less 1 year old. 74.6% of "Previously" and 72.4% of "Newly" served their meals in the classrooms. The student's nutrition and preferences were mainly considered in menu planning in both groups. The standardized recipe was used in 90% of total schools but not effectively in both groups. The nutrient value of meals was evaluated by the dietitians in most schools. Nutrition surveys of the meals students ate at home were carried out in 27.3% of "Previously" and 13.8% of "Newly". Students preferences were studied regularly in 60% of "Previously" and 48.3% of "Newly" and students evaluations of meals served by the school lunch program in 52.7% of "Previously" and 34.5% of "Newly". In 92.7% of "Previously" and 72.4% of "Newly", nutrition education was executed but was done mostly by letterssent to students' parents(in about 95% of schools), with only 11.8% of schools educating within in their classrooms. There were few instructional media for nutrition education. The most of them used notice boards(48.0% of "Previously" and 41.6% of "Newly") . Evaluation studies on nutrition management, and nutrition education were hardly correlated to the dietitian's career and educational level. They were also not correlated to the number of meals served by the school lunch program. In conclusion, the status of the nutrition management in the elementary school lunch program was not good and schools that had started the school lunch program before ("Previously") and after 1996(Mewly") were not that different. It appears that most of the dietitians from elementary schools started the school lunch program before 1996 have followed the nutrition management method established in these schools. In order to have better management in the elementary school lunch program, we need to improve the dietitian's position and more studies in the fields fo better nutrition management and nutrition education should be done.ram, we need to improve the dietitian's position and more studies in the fields fo better nutrition management and nutrition education should be done.