Knowledge–Attitude–Practice (KAP) Study and Nutrition Education of Athletic and Non-athletic Teenagers (13–18 Years)

Abstract

Adequate food is the most important requisite for growth, while it is important throughout childhood, it is more crucial during the early years of life when rapid growth is occurring. It is thus obvious that dietary intake, nutritional status, emotional maturity, and physical fitness are major determinants of physical performance. Pretests were taken to understand the existing knowledge, attitudes and practices’ (KAP) prevailing among 300 athlete and 300 non-athlete groups of different schools and sports ground of Nagpur city, Maharashtra, India within age group of 13–18 years. The impact of nutrition education, using power point presentation and booklet, was later verified by post tests and compared. Knowledge of study participants with respect to nutrition show that before training, there was moderate to high level of awareness regarding the nutrition related aspects. After undergoing training, there was a significant (P < 0.05) increase with high awareness of the total nutrition knowledge related aspects in majority of the children irrespective of age, gender, and activity. Attitude of subjects toward nutrition shows that before training, majority of non-athletes had moderate level of attitude toward the nutrition related aspects, while majority of athletes had a high attitude toward the same. Comparatively, the total attitude of athletes was noticeably more favorable toward nutrition than the non-athletes. Prior to training, significantly high percentage of children had moderate to high level of practice with respect to nutrition-related aspects. Although there was positive change, the magnitude of the change was lesser than the other aspects of practice as individual needs time to convert his/her knowledge into practice. Thus, delivering continuous education through workshops and courses would help to improve teenagers’ nutritional KAP.