• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.713-720
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of vegetable-related nutrition education for fourth grade elementary school students in Gyeongnam province. A comparative analysis of nutritional knowledge on vegetables, vegetable preferences, and vegetable intake in school foodservices were assessed between a control group and an experimental group. The control and experimental group contained 62 and 67 students, respectively, and the experimental group received nutritional education in four sessions (40 minutes each session) per week. A self-administered survey was conducted before and after this education, and 122 questionnaires (for 61 members of the experimental group and 61 members of control group) were analyzed. In the experimental group, there was a significant (p<0.001) increase in vegetable-related nutrition knowledge (form 5.02 to 6.10 out of a total score of 9), while there were no significant differences in the control group. Vegetable preference scores also significantly (p<0.001) increased (from 3.44 to 3.85 on the 5-point Likert scale) in experimental group, while there were no significant difference in control group. We also observed a significant (p<0.001) increase in vegetable intake from school foodservices (89.34% to 95.49%) in the experimental group, but there were no significant differences in the control group. In conclusion, a vegetable-related nutrition education for fourth grade elementary school students was effective at improving the nutritional knowledge of vegetables, vegetable preferences, and vegetable intake from school foodservices. Therefore, to encourage the vegetable-related right dietary habits, sustainable, and systematic nutrition education programs should be implemented for elementary students.