Association between Eating Habits and Nutrition Education Implementation among Kindergarten Teachers by Age

Abstract

Objective: This study examined the association between eating habits and nutrition education implementation among kindergarten teachers with the aim of promoting nutrition education in kindergartens.
Methods: Two thousand and fifty-eight kindergarten teachers in B City, A Prefecture, completed a self-administered survey between November 2010 and May 2011. The questionnaires were used to investigate teacher knowledge, attitudes and behaviors regarding diet management, and nutrition education implementation. Data were analyzed to examine any association between the variables and also to compare results among the age group of respondents.
Results: Six hundred and thirty-seven teachers responded in total; 553 valid responses were obtained. Results showed that 42.6% of teachers in their 20s and 55.8% in their 30s~50s consistently checked food labels (p = 0.004); 19.5% of teachers in their 20s and 52.2% in their 30s~50s cooked almost every day (p < 0.001); and 55.1% of teachers in their 20s and 68.7% in their 30s~50s had provided nutrition education in kindergartens (p = 0.003). The proportion of teachers in their 20s was significantly smaller across all items. Teachers in their 20s who had not implemented nutrition education perceived more unbalanced meal plans as good (p = 0.004). Moreover, there was a difference in the frequency of cooking between teachers in their 20s who had provided nutrition education and those who had not (p = 0.022). There was no association between nutrition education implementation and eating habits among teachers in their 30s~50s.
Conclusion: Differences in checking food labels, frequency of cooking, and nutrition education implementation in kindergartens among the age groups of respondents were observed. Teachers in their 20s who had not implemented nutrition education had room for improvement in their knowledge of balanced menus and also in the frequency of cooking.