Teachers` knowledge and behaviours concerning vitamin A

This study was planned and carried out in order to determine the knowledgeof the teachers, working at the public primary schools and high schools in the centreof Bala,- a district within Ankara - and in the towns and villages of that area, aboutthe health problems resulting from the sources of Vitamin A; storing, preparing andcooking Vitamin A; and taking inadequate or excessive amounts of Vitamin A aswell as their tendencies towards this vitamin.It was found that 72.0% of 221 teachers (54.8% female, 45.2% male)participating in the study have never taken a nutrition education course. It was foundthat the teachers? total rate of giving nutrition education was 66.5%. When the habitsof using vitamin supplements were evaluated, it was seen that 65.1% of the teachersdid not use any vitamin supplements while 33% of them sometimes or always usedthe supplements. When the genders were considered, it was found that most ofthose who use vitamin supplements were women. The percentage of the participantsusing Vitamin A supplement was found only 1.8%. 91% of the women using skincare products told that they consider the Vitamin A content when using them. Whenthe rates of answering the questions in the first part of the survey relating Vitamin Awas analysed, it was found that that the percentage of the women giving correctanswers for all the questions was higher than that of the men. In this survey, it wasseen that teachers were especially more informed on the subjects relating Vitamin Asources. It was also seen that the percentage of the participants knowing the fact thatfish oil was the best source of Vitamin A was 70.1% while the rate of those whoknew the other fact that grains were not a good source of Vitamin A was 48.9%. Theteachers who had taken nutrition education courses were more informed in answeringthe questions concerning Vitamin A than those who have never taken or who havetaken a partial nutrition education course. For all the questions, the highest rate ofanswering correctly again belonged to the teachers having taken nutrition education.When it comes to answering the questions concerning different branches of teaching,the teachers of House Economy were the most knowledgeable of all. For themultiple choice questions, when the answers of the teachers whose daily Vitamin Aivconsumption were adequate and those whose consumption were inadequate wereanalysed, it was seen that almost half of the teachers who gave correct answers wereadequately nourished and the other half inadequately nourished. When theparticipants? condition of having taken nutrition education and their ages wereconsidered, it was found that there wasn?t a significant difference in the frequency ofweekly consuming food (p>0.05) which have higher Vitamin A content. When theissue of having taken nutrition education was considered, a significant difference wasobserved in the consumption of vegetables food such as broccoli, pumpkin, carrot,green pepper and tomato which are rich sources of Vitamin A, while there was ameaningful difference in only consuming apricot and cress when the ages wereconsidered. When the teachers? food consumption in one day was analysed, it wasfound that the teachers had an unbalanced and inadequate nutrition.Key words: Vitamin A, Nutrition, Knowledge of Teachers, Eating Behaviour