The Food and Nutrition Environment at Secondary Schools in the Eastern Cape, South Africa as Reported by Learners

Alice P. Okeyo, Eunice Seekoe, Anniza de Villiers, Mieke Faber, Johanna H. Nel and Nelia P. Steyn
Additional contact information
Alice P. Okeyo: Department of Nursing Science, University of Fort Hare, Ring Road, Alice 5701, South Africa
Eunice Seekoe: Sefako Makgatho Health Science University, Ga-Rankuwa 0208, South Africa
Anniza de Villiers: Research Capacity Development Division, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town 7501, South Africa
Mieke Faber: Non-Communicable Diseases Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town 7501, South Africa
Johanna H. Nel: Department of Logistics, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa
Nelia P. Steyn: Division Human Nutrition, Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town; UCT Medical campus, Anzio Road, Anatomy Building, Observatory, Cape Town 7925, South Africa

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-18

Abstract: Overweight and obesity are growing concerns in adolescents, particularly in females in South Africa. The aim of this study was to evaluate the food and nutrition environment in terms of government policy programs, nutrition education provided, and foods sold at secondary schools in the Eastern Cape province. Sixteen schools and grade 8–12 learners ( N = 1360) were randomly selected from three health districts comprising poor disadvantaged communities. Based on age and sex specific body mass index (BMI) cut-off values, 13.3% of males and 5.5% of females were underweight, while 9.9% of males and 36.1% of females were overweight or obese. The main food items purchased at school were unhealthy energy-dense items such as fried flour dough balls, chocolates, candies, and crisps/chips. Nutrition knowledge scores based on the South African food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) were poor for 52% to 23.4% learners in Grades 8 to 12, respectively. Female learners generally had significantly higher nutrition knowledge scores compared to their male counterparts ( p = 0.016). Questions poorly answered by more than 60% of learners, included the number of fruit and vegetable portions required daily, food to eat when overweight, foods containing fiber, and importance of legumes. It was noted that the majority of teachers who taught nutrition had no formal nutrition training and their responses to knowledge questions were poor indicating that they were not familiar with the FBDGs, which are part of the curriculum. Nutrition assessment as part of the Integrated School Health Program was done on few learners. Overall however, despite some challenges the government national school meal program provided meals daily to 96% of learners. In general, the school food and nutrition environment was not conducive for promoting healthy eating.

Keywords: obesity; adolescents; school environment; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/11/4038/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/11/4038/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:11:p:4038-:d:367883

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().