A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Two Training Methods of Nutritional Behavior of Elementary School Students: Opportunistic vs. Multimedia Training

Educational planning، as a principle of health education، is both economical and the priorities of WHO and the regional community health policymakers. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two training methods، namely، multimedia-based training vs. opportunistic training، on nutritional knowledge، attitude، and behavior of primary- school students. This was a semi-experiential research conducted on two groups of 84 students، selected randomly from two primary schools in Jajrood County، District 8 of Tehran. Training intervention was then made into the first group using an opportunistic method by the teacher، and in the second group using multimedia package. Three nutritional variables of target students، namely، knowledge، attitude، and behavior were measured using researcher-designed questionnaires filled out by the students in three stages: before، immediately after، and three months after training. The results were analyzed using independent- T and repeated-measure tests، and SPSS16 statistical software. Before intervention، no significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of nutritional knowledge، attitude، or behavior (p=0. 93، p=0. 52، and p=0. 67 respectively). After intervention، knowledge scores in both groups increased significantly (p<0. 001). However، the attitude and behavior scores for the two groups increased differently: p<0. 001 for the opportunistic training group while p<0. 17 and p<0. 04 for the multimedia training group. It seems that in some occasions، opportunistic training is more accessible، less costly، and more effective than multimedia training. It is therefore advised that teachers make optimum use of numerous opportunities during teacher-student contact times to improve the students’ knowledge، attitudes and behavior in health-related subjects such as nutrition، with minimum costs.