The effect of nutrition education given to children playing football on nutritional status

Establishing healthy eating habits in children at an early age allows them to lead a healthier life. In this study, it was aimed to determine the effect of nutrition education on the nutritional status of school-age children playing amateur football. The study was carried out with children enrolled in Istanbul Kartalları Sports Club. After obtaining the voluntary information and consent form from the families for their children, personal information form, physical activity form, Healthy Eating Self-Efficacy Scale for Children, Mediterranean Diet Quality Scale, anthropometric measurements, frequency of food consumption, 3-day food consumption records were obtained before and after the training. . Nutrition education is organized in four steps. Training was provided every weekend for 1 month. Nutrition training was given, consisting of a minimum of 20 minutes and a maximum of 40 minutes and a total of 90 minutes. In order to determine the effect of education on nutritional status, the post-test was conducted three weeks later. 60 male students were included in the study. After the training, it was determined that the Mediterranean Diet Quality Scale score increased significantly (p<0.001), the rate of those with low compliance decreased, and the rate of those with high compliance increased. After the training, the frequency of consumption of cheese and its types increased significantly (p=0.014), and the frequency of ice cream consumption decreased significantly (p=0.001). It was determined that the frequency of consumption of red meat and its products and fish increased significantly after the training (p<0.05). It was determined that the consumption of green leafy vegetables and fresh fruit juice increased significantly after the training compared to before (p<0.05). After the training, oil, sugar and chocolate etc. consumption frequency of products decreased significantly compared to before (p<0.05). It was determined that the frequency of biscuit and chips consumption decreased significantly after the training (p<0.05). It has been determined that nutrition education provides positive changes on the nutritional habits of school-age children.