Health Education Program for Improving of Food Intake of Breakfast and Vegetables Consumption: A Quasi Experiment among Elementary School Students in Indonesia

Abstract

Objective - Undernutrition among elementary school students is too high in Indonesia. Elementary students in the Indonesian context have many problems in daily breakfast and vegetable consumption. Therefore, health education programs to improve their nutritional status should be conducted in context. Further, this study sought to examine a health education program using a SIMON Comic with an emic Papua approach for improving food intake of breakfast and vegetables among elementary school students in Indonesia.

Method - A quasi-experimental study design with a pre-test-post-test control group was performed on 60 elementary school students (30 in the intervention and 30 in the control group). The intervention group received the comic for one month. Meanwhile, the control group received a leaflet. Food intake of breakfast and vegetable were measured using a self-administred questionnaire to measure knowledge, attitudes, and practice. Data were analysed using the independent T-Test.

Results - The SIMON comic with an emic Papua approach significantly increased students’ knowledge about improving breakfast and vegetable consumption, P-value = 0.001). However, there was no significant attitude and practice change between comic and leaflet groups in breakfast and vegetables consumption (P-value>0.05).

Conclusion - The SIMON Comic with an emic Papua approach improved knowledge of students about breakfast and vegetable consumption. Therefore, health education for elementary students using this comic should be implemented in the school curriculum.