Nutritional knowledge, attitude and practice of guidance-school girls of two regions in Iran

Introduction: Nutritional concepts learned by young girls as would-be mothers will play an important part in children’s and family's health. This study aimed at evaluating nutritional knowledge, attitude and practice of female junior high school students in two regions of Iran. Methods: In this descriptive study, 587 female students within the age range of 11 to 16 years old were selected through random sampling in cities of Malayer and Shahrood in 2009. To evaluate the nutritional knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP), questionnaires containing items on demographic, KAP and food behaviors were used. Based on the yielded results analyzed by SPSS software Pack, those who scored 75%, within the range of 75%- 50% and lower than 50% of the highest score were considered as desirable, moderate and low, respectively. Results: On the Whole, the majority of subjects in the two cities, had moderate knowledge (59.5%), had good attitude (55.2%) and had moderate practice (55.53%). Conclusions: The results showed that the subjects had moderate knowledge and practice, but since nutritional practice does not accord with their attitude, constant nutritional intervention seems necessary.