IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF NUTRITION EDUCATION PROGRAMME ON NUTRITIONAL KNOWLEDGE OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS

The present study was conducted with the objective to assess impact of nutrition education on nutritional knowledge of adolescent girls. Pre and post-test experimental research design was used for carrying out the research. The study was conducted in randomly selected village Mangrop of Suwana panchayat samiti of Bhilwara district, Rajasthan. One Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidhayalaya was selected from Mangrop village purposively because these schools are residential and thus are easily approachable. Total sample consisted of 50 adolescent girls in the age range of 13-18 years. The education programme was organized for two days in a week continuously for six weeks and pre-test was done before giving the educational package and post-test was done after 15 days of the programme. The data was collected by using questionnaire technique and analyzed using frequency, per cent, mean per cent score and paired t-test.Major findings of the study revealed that a significant difference was found in overall and aspect wise pre and post knowledge of respondents prior to nutrition education programme. In the aspect ‘food', before imparting education 56 per cent respondents had medium knowledge followed by low knowledge (24%). Only 40 per cent of respondents fell into high knowledge category. Regarding ‘food groups', 44 per cent respondents already had medium knowledge, while 30 percent had low knowledge and only 26 per cent had high knowledge. But after imparting nutrition education the knowledge of the adolescent girls was increased and the initial and final values of knowledge test were statistically significant.