2024 Volume 75 Issue 12 Pages 615-628
We conducted cross-curricular food and nutrition education (shokuiku) classes and bone-mass measurements in second-grade junior high school students and performed a follow-up survey and measurements one year later. Our aims were to clarify the characteristics of changes in bone mass among the students; to evaluate the effectiveness of the classes; and to clarify the student's perceptions through two bone mass measurements.
Four 50-minute food and nutrition education classes were held in July 2021. Bone mass measurements and a questionnaire survey were conducted in one of the classes. A follow-up survey and bone-mass measurements of the 71 participants were conducted one year later.
The mean OSI (osteo sono-assessment index; an indicator of bone mass) tended to increase from the second to the third grade in junior high school. The percentage of students who belonged to sports clubs in school or the community and the frequency of calcium-rich food consumption decreased in the third grade. The participants described the results of the bone mass measurements, their dietary and lifestyle habits, and their aspirations for their future lives in the questionnaire surveys.
Although the junior high school period is an important time for bone mass gain, the percentage of those who had desirable dietary/lifestyle habits was lower in the third grade than in the second grade, when the intervention was conducted. The two bone mass measurements were useful for the participants to be aware of their own growth stage, to consider their lifestyles on the basis of the evidence, and to help them envision their future lives. These results suggest that continuous food and nutrition education—not limited to just a single month—is necessary.
