Attitude towards learning food and nutrition subject and eating behaviours of ordinary level secondary school students in Dodoma region.
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Date
2022
Authors
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
The learning outcome of food and nutrition subject depends on attitude of the leaners
towards the subject. In Tanzania, food and nutrition subject is taught in selected
secondary schools at the ordinary level education and in even fewer schools at the
advanced level. This study aimed to determine whether the attitudes towards learning
food and nutrition subject influence eating behaviours of secondary school students. Data
were collected in Dodoma region from three purposively selected secondary schools. The
study involved 381 students who were randomly selected whereby 194 students opted and
187 did not opt to study food and nutrition subject. Nutrition information in the syllabus,
teaching and learning materials were collected through documentary desk review.
Students' attitudes towards studying food and nutrition subject and their eating behaviours
were assessed through structured questionnaires that included, the dietary diversity
component among others. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20
software was used to analyze descriptive and inferential statistics where t-test was
conducted while qualitative data were analyzed by the text analytics program and
interpreted according to the emerging themes. The study observed that syllabus had
objectives that were relevant to the nutritional needs of the country. The subject specific
textbooks were absent instead there were eleven (11) reference books used in all the
surveyed schools. Those reference books had outdated nutrition information hence, not
satisfactory to fulfil the need of the current syllabus and on address the existing problem
of triple burden of malnutrition. Gender was found to influence choosing of the subject
since mean attitude scores for males (M = 2.0154) which was half to that of females (M =
4.4995). Opting to study the subject influences eating behaviour significantly (p-value <
0.01). Among the 194 students who opted to study food and nutrition subject, 93% had
proper eating behaviour because number of food groups eaten per day was five and above hence their dietary diversity score was above five (5). The students who had improper
eating behaviour due to the fact that their diet consist less than five food groups was 7%
hence their dietary diversity score was below five. The study concluded that students
practice what was taught to improve their eating behaviour because students who opted
for Food and Nutrition Subject had adequate dietary diversity in their diet compared to
those who did not opt for studying the subject. The study recommends that, subject
extracurricular activities on nutrition programs should be given to all students in order to
emphasis and provide opportunity of improving their eating behaviour for their lifelong
future benefits.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Dodoma region, Nutrition, Eating behaviour, Students