Italian public school: a survey to estimate teachers' knowledge and perception on prevention and management of nutrition related pathologies.

Aims: This study aims to estimate the current knowledge of nursery and primary school reference teachers about nutrition related pathologies, their prevention and control.

Methods: The study was conducted during April-June 2006 sending a questionnaire to 24 School Directions of nursery and primary schools in a Northern Italian region (Friuli Venezia Giulia).

Results: Considering all the schools we obtained a global response rate of 82.3% (115/142): 73.7% (42/57) of nursery schools and 85.9% (73/85) of primary school. 86.1% (99/115) of teachers thought that doing programmes aimed to improve nutrition behaviours is effective. 98.3% (113/115) of teachers answered that favourite fats in the diet are vegetables, 23.5% (27/115) that 55%-60% of the total caloric intake in children diet should consist in carbohydrates, 37.4% (43/115) ticked correct definition of diabetes. 75.7% (87/115) of interviewed teachers explain the term Body Mass Index correctly and 42.6% (49/115) know the cut-off between normal weight and overweight.

Conclusion: analysing the levels of importance attributed by teachers to nutrition issues, it emerges a noteworthy interest on this topic. This should be a stimulus to promote projects and training courses on this topic.