Nutritional Education Tool to Improve Overall Dietary Attitude and Knowledge among Young Women

AbstractOne of the weakest links in intervention programs to control malnutrition is the absence of proper nutrition education. Scarcity of appropriate and specific education material is weakness in Nutrition Education endeavours.As part of a community nutrition education program, nutrition education material in the form of a booklet was prepared keeping in view the updated scientific information. Qualitative research techniques such as focus group discussion and focused ethnography utilized to assess the existing community perception, beliefs to identify attitude preferences and resistance factors. Simple messages were prepared by reconstructing themes. Fifty-two women constituting two groups participated in the study. Women in Group-A, were those who had a tangible information seeking attitude, these were Farmers Training Institute trainees and those in Group-B were those who had never been exposed to any outside extension program, these were farm women of Kurubarahalli.The impact of the nutrition education tool was assessed by a check list of 31 questions. Significant improvements in knowledge was observed in all variables in both groups. Study demonstrated that nutrition and health related messages incorporated in the education material successfully transmitted to the target group of women.