PhD Thesis

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    Tools to impart garden based nutrition online education for pre-schoolers
    (Department of Community science, College of Agriculture , Vellayani, 2024-08-30) Abhina,B; Beela, G K
    The project entitled ―Tools to Impart Garden-Based Nutrition Online Education for Pre-schoolers‖ was carried out at the Department of Community Science, during 2021-2023. The objective of the research study was development and evaluation of garden-based nutrition education online tools for preschoolers and pilot test the feasibility and acceptability of the tools. The research study was conducted in three phases (i) Preliminary data collection (ii) Development of garden-based nutrition education (GBNE) tools (iii) Feasibility and acceptability testing of the developed GBNE tools. The study was conducted among preschool/anganwadi teachers and parents of preschool children in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts. The assessment tools constructed to elicit information were questionnaires which included demographic characteristics, nutrition knowledge, knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) towards nutrition education, food habits, food consumption pattern, and feasibility and acceptability of the developed GBNE tools. Standardized tools used for collection and assessment includes fruit and vegetable preference rating scale of children, child eating behavior scale and parent feeding style scale. The sample of 75 preschool/anganwadi teachers were selected using random sampling method in order to assess their nutrition knowledge and KAP towards nutrition education. The sample of 75 parents of preschool children were selected using purposive sampling to comprehensively assess their nutrition knowledge, KAP towards nutrition education, food habits, fruit and vegetable preference of children, food consumption pattern, child eating behavior and parent feeding style. In order to impart online garden-based nutrition education, ten GBNE tools were developed. They are: (1) power point presentation video on the importance of fruits and vegetables, (2) video on child friendly gardening, (3) fruit and vegetable drawing cum colouring book, (4) garden based activity book, (5) leaflet on garden arts and crafts, (6) story books with vegetables and fruits as the characters, (7) role play with pre-schoolers as fruits and vegetables, (8) manual for games, (9) nutrition education guide for parents and (10) recipe book for pre-schoolers. In order to conduct the feasibility and acceptability study the developed ten tools were shared to the parents and teachers. The parents were encouraged to use the tools to impart GBNE to their children. A structured questionnaire was developed to assess the feasibility and acceptability. The tools are available in the website https://www.communitynutritioncoa.com/ in bilingual languages. In the present study the majority of the preschool teachers belonged to the age group of 41-50 years (36%), and had higher secondary education (52%). Most of the parents of preschool children were under the age group of 26-30 years, 37% were graduates and 36% were post graduates. Fifty seven per cent of preschool teachers and 69.33% of parents of preschool children have medium score for general nutrition knowledge. Sixty eight per cent of both parents and teachers were having medium score for protein knowledge. In fat related knowledge, 66.67% preschool teachers and 61.33% parents have medium score. Vitamin knowledge assessment results showed that, 72% of preschool teachers and 57.33% parents have medium score. Sixty five per cent preschool teachers and 54.67% parents have medium score for dietary fiber knowledge. Fruits and vegetable knowledge assessment indicated that, 58.67% preschool teachers and 70.67% parents of preschool children have medium score. Assessment of KAP towards nutrition education revealed that, 57.33% of preschool teachers and 68% of preschool parents had medium score in nutrition knowledge. Nearly 46% of preschool teachers and 57.33% of parents have medium scores for nutrition education attitude. For nutrition education practices, 65.33% of preschool teachers and 53.33% of parents reported to have medium score. Correlation analysis results indicated a significant correlation for nutrition knowledge with age, education, income and KAP towards nutrition education. It was also noted that, 40% of preschool teachers are not implementing any nutrition education activities. Majority (73.33%) of the preschool children were non-vegetarians. The present study showed that, children likes cabbage and cauliflower more under leafy vegetables category. Cucumber, tomato and beans found to be more liked by majority of children in the other vegetables group. In root and tubers category, children likes potato, tapioca, carrot, and beetroot more. Study results showed that children likes fruits very much. They likes mango, apple, pine apple, orange, jackfruit, guava, and banana. The eating behavior of the preschool children, highlighted that most of them had the behavior of eating slowly and refused to drink or showed no desire to drink. Parent feeding style showed that majority of the parents followed encouragement feeding pattern. The acceptability and feasibility study of the tools were carried out and the results depicted that coloring book was the most acceptable tool (3.67) for preschool teachers. Recipe book was the most acceptable (3.59) garden-based nutrition education tool for parents of preschool children. Feasibility study results portrayed that role plays was the most feasible tool for both teachers (3.60) and parents (3.51). These tools are more participatory in nature than other tools. Majority of the respondents suggested to include audio, and it was incorporated. Frequency of usage of tools showed that story books were used more by the parents of preschool children. Impact study of usage of GBNE tools point out that, there is significant changes in the general nutrition knowledge (18.28 to 40.10), protein knowledge (9.13 to 10.75), dietary fiber knowledge (4.89 to 5.35), fruits and vegetable knowledge (15.35 to 16.93), nutrition education knowledge (12.01 to 14.31), nutrition education attitude (6.04 to 6.60), nutrition education practices (2.19 to 3.73), preference of green leafy vegetables (19.27 to 27.51), preference of roots and tubers (19.77 to 27.51), preference of other vegetables (20.28 to 28.87), preference of fruits (46.71 to 65.28), food consumption pattern (17.64 to 20.67), desire to drink (2.89-3.41), satiety responsiveness (4.40 to 6.60), and parent feeding styles. The study results concludes that at present not much emphasis is given to impart nutrition education in the preschools. The developed GBNE tools were reported to be acceptable and feasible by parents and teachers. The present study indicates that nutrition education should be imparted from preschool age to develop healthy food habits. The results of the study provides valuable information that can be introduced in preschool curriculum. Hence GBNE should be incorporated in preschool and anganwadi curriculum. Govt. need to initiate schemes to impart GBNE in preschools and schools. The developed tools are available in the website and it will be intimated to the Department of Education, Government of Kerala, Directorate of Public Instruction, ICDS and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan so that it becomes handy for parents and teachers to impart GBNE.