Perceptions of School Management on the Relationship between School Nutrition and Development of Non-Communicable Diseases in a Rural South African District: A Qualitative Study

Sibusiso Cyprian Nomatshila, Teke Ruffin Apalata and Sikhumbuzo A. Mabunda
Additional contact information
Sibusiso Cyprian Nomatshila: Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha 5117, South Africa
Teke Ruffin Apalata: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha 5117, South Africa
Sikhumbuzo A. Mabunda: The George Institute for Global Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2042, Australia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 19, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Globally, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) were responsible for 41 million deaths in 2016, with the majority of these occurring in low- and middle-income countries. These diseases are on the rise as a result of unhealthy, low-quality, and unbalanced diets, which have resulted in overweight and obesity. The National School Nutrition Program (NSNP) was created to regulate the foods sold to schoolchildren. The aim of this study was to ascertain school management teams’ perspectives on the relationship between the NSNP and the development of lifestyle diseases. A phenomenological qualitative study using focus group discussions among 16 purposively selected members of the school management teams were conducted in Mt Frere, Eastern Cape in 2016. The narrative data were analyzed using Tesch’s eight-phase thematic analysis approach. The data analysis revealed two themes (NSNP and the vendor system) and six sub-themes. The NSNP was viewed as making a significant contribution to children’s food security, thereby improving academic output. However, reengineering of the NSNP was needed through improved budgeting and inclusion of breakfast in the menu to control NCDs risk factors. The current implementation of the vendor system did not support reduction of NCDs risk factors. Improved implementation of the guide to the vendor system is needed.

Keywords: nutrition program; vendor system; qualitative study; obesity; non-communicable diseases (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/432/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/1/432/ (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:19:y:2021:i:1:p:432-:d:715607

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 ().