Nutrition education based on health belief model improves dietary calcium intake among female students of junior high schools.

This study examined the effects of a nutrition education programme based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) on knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of dietary calcium in female students. In this interventional study, 188 students were placed into intervention (95) and control (93) groups. The intervention group participated in a nutrition education programme. Students in both the groups completed KAP and food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) at baseline and after two and three months of follow-up respectively. The data were analyzed by independent and paired t-tests. Those who received the intervention were found to have better attitude (p=0.049) and practice (p=0.005) scores compared to the controls. The HBM constructs, including perceived susceptibility (p=0.006), perceived severity (p=0.001), perceived benefits (p=0.002), perceived barriers (p=0.001), and taking health action (p=0.02) scores, were also significantly higher. The findings support the effectiveness of nutrition education based on the HBM in improving the knowledge, attitude, and practice relating to calcium intake among adolescent students.