The Research On The Influences Of Nutritional Training On The Nursing Undergraduates-from Three Aspects: Nutritional Knowledge, Attitude And Behaviors

PrefaceWith the improvement of living standards and qualities of China citizens and the continuous promotion of popularization of science work, people have gradually increased their awareness and understanding of health, in which the close relationship between nutrition and health also has been drawing much more attention seriously. The research has shown that the lack of concept and knowledge about balanced diet can not really be applied to real life to improve people's health, thus, leading to the so called "diseases of civilization", nutrition-related chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, tumor, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and osteoporosis that increased significantly. This needs to research on the objects characteristics and their current level of nutrition knowledge to choose acceptable and effective ways of nutrition training, in order that it will improve the nutrition status of the populations. Many researchers have proved that nutrition training is not only a significant way to improve people's nutritional status, but also critical to guide people to balance their diet and to establish a healthy way for living. But in China, nutrition training has not been widely spread, as educational institutions, medical schools did not even consider bringing nutrition training on the agenda, but only some relevant specialized subjects began offering classes in nutrition. In some developed countries, it attaches great importance to nutrition training, offers nutrition lessons in primary school and implements it throughout the whole education program. An active action should be taken on nutrition training for college students to improve the understanding and awareness of their nutrition knowledge and implements ways to strengthen the degree of attention regarding their own status of nutrition and health. Thus, to be more effectively carried out, Knowledge-Attitude-Practice (KAP), a mature health training model in altering one's behavior, is a sort of application of Cognitive Theory and Motivation Theory into health training. This research is technically based on KAP model, in order to probe whether and how much the nutrition training will influence students'knowledge, attitude and practice; to learn about the students'present level of nutrition knowledge; to research on how to alter the students' attitude towards nutrition to correct their unhealthy eating habits, and even to improve the health condition for performing their clinical tasks in the future.Object and MethodI Research ObjectRandomly select 351 nursing-majored college students from Shenyang Medical College and divide them into two groups:the case group of 236 individuals and control group of 115 individuals.II Research Method1. KAP Questionnaire Survey DesignDesign questionnaire in accordance with relevant documents and theses. The content and keys are both improved, referring to some relevant materials-reading. The content of the questionnaire includes five parts:common sense, knowledge on nutrition, attitude towards nutrition, eating habit and comprehensive understanding. (see attached sheet)2. Research Process and Method(1) KAP Questionnaire Survey before Nutrition TrainingFirst, train all the students together, in order to help them understand the purpose, content, procedure of the survey, and additional requirements to answer the questionnaire. Then, hand out the papers to every student, meanwhile, assuring that every questionnaire is answered personally and without any interference. Finally, collect all the papers to have them checked out, improved and analyzed right after the students answered them.(2) Nutrition Training①Lectures on Nutrition Invite a professional lecturer who major in nutrition to deliver speeches and seminars on many topics such as basic nutrition knowledge, balanced meals, diet related diseases and nutrition, and correcting unhealthy dietary behaviors. The training includes 6 seminars, with two hours each time,12 hours in total.②Nutrition Counseling and Guidance For any of the nutritional problem of the research objects, it gives on-site or telephone counseling and guidance.③Brochure Released Handing out brochures and booklets such as "Guide on Chinese Citizens'Meals and the Balanced-meals Tower" and "Chinese People Need a Reform on Meals".④Self-study Provide some reference materials for students, instructing them to read and discuss and exchange ideas.(3) KAP Research after Nutrition TrainingSurvey these students once more with the same questionnaire in the same way as it has been mentioned above after nutrition training.3. Data AnalysisAnalyze the data gained from the survey with SPSS 13.0 software (test levelα= 0.05).Results1. The survey before the nutrition training shows that the nursing undergraduates of Shenyang Medical College have a quite low level of nutrition knowledge. For the two research groups, both are not yet reaching the passing level, which is 60 points in average. The analysis has shown that the points 50.35 are for the control group and the points 51.45 are for the case group, both are less than 60 points (full score is 100 points); the points for the students'attitude over nutrition are 74.46 (control group) and 72.62 (case group); furthermore, the students have quite a few unhealthy eating habits, because the points for this section are 53.28 (control group) and 53.04 (case group), also less than 60 points.2. Before nutrition training, the analysis showed that there was no statistical significance between control group and case group (P>0.05). While after nutrition training, in accordance with the analysis, it has shown that the case group KAP scores were more significantly increased than it has before the nutrition training (P<0.05) while, the control group KAP scores have not been found significantly change between before and after the nutrition training (P<0.05); also after the nutrition education, through the comparison of the control group and the case group, it again showed that the case group has significantly higher KAP scores than control group (P<0.05).Conclusion1. The nursing-majored undergraduates of Shenyang Medical College are not only generally low in level of nutrition knowledge, average attitude toward nutrition, but also many unhealthy eating behaviors and habits exist among them.2. Nutrition training plays an essential role in promoting their nutrition-knowledge learning, improving their attitude over nutrition, and correcting their unhealthy eating behaviors and habits.3. Though the initial success in nutrition training achieved a certain level, the future effectiveness cannot be guaranteed in the long run. Thus, it is suggested that lectures and seminars on nutrition should be given regularly.