Nutrition Education Practices of Health Teachers from Shanghai K-12 Schools: The Current Status, Barriers and Willingness to Teach

Fan Li, Yaqun Yuan, Xinming Xu, Jingsi Chen, Jiaxuan Li, Gengsheng He and Bo Chen
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Fan Li: Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety of Ministry of Education, Collaborative Innovation Center of Social Risks Governance in Health, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Yaqun Yuan: Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety of Ministry of Education, Collaborative Innovation Center of Social Risks Governance in Health, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Xinming Xu: Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety of Ministry of Education, Collaborative Innovation Center of Social Risks Governance in Health, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Jingsi Chen: Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety of Ministry of Education, Collaborative Innovation Center of Social Risks Governance in Health, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Jiaxuan Li: Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety of Ministry of Education, Collaborative Innovation Center of Social Risks Governance in Health, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Gengsheng He: Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety of Ministry of Education, Collaborative Innovation Center of Social Risks Governance in Health, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Bo Chen: Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety of Ministry of Education, Collaborative Innovation Center of Social Risks Governance in Health, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 17, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: China is facing challenges in both undernutrition and overnutrition, resulting from unhealthy diets. Nutrition education early in life, especially in school settings, has been reported to be effective in addressing these challenges. However, little is known about how nutrition education is delivered in schools in China. This study aimed to investigate the current status of delivering nutrition education by health teachers in Shanghai and to determine the barriers and resources that influence the teachers’ practices and their willingness to teach nutrition. In 2016–2017, a cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted on 904 health teachers from 823 K-12 schools in Shanghai, China. There were 722 (79.9%) teachers that had the experience of teaching nutrition, but only 137 (19.0% of 722) spent ≥1 h teaching nutrition courses in each school year. Only 18.6% of the teachers had received a formal education in nutrition in college. About 88.5% of teachers expressed their willingness to teach nutrition in the future. The three major reasons for never teaching nutrition were categorized as: nutrition being taught by other teachers (39.5%), willing to teach but lack of knowledge (37.9%), and the subject not being required by school administrators (31.3%). Teachers who spent more time or were more willing to teach nutrition courses were those who were female, from private schools, had a better background in receiving nutrition education, and were more concerned about nutrition. Our data show that nutrition education is at a formative stage in Shanghai, China.

Keywords: nutrition education; health teacher; current status; barriers; willingness; teaching hours (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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