Feasibility Study On Student Nutrition Meal In Suzhou City

Objective: To evaluate nutritional and health status in primary and middle school students in Suzhou to find major nutritional prolems and analyze their relation to unhealthy eating behavior and school lunch. To discover possible barrier to put the student nutrition meal plan into pratice in Suzhou and explore ways to solve it from nutrition education, policy setting, surveillance to government management.Methods: The physical examination and survey on eating behavior for the primary school and middle school students in Suzhou City and survey on student nutrition meal feasibility for related people were conducted with stratified cluster sampling method. Special questionnaires were designed for primary school students, middle school students,parents, class advisers, lunch making employers and school administrators respectively. The questionnaires contain basic information, eating behaviors, nutrition knowledge, and attitude on the implementation of student nutrition meals in Suzhou. The examination includes body physical exam and measurement of blood hemoglobin concentration (Hb). Hb was determined with Cyanmethemoglobin method recommended by World Health Organization. Anemia in the study was defined as Hb level below 12.0g/dl in 6～13 years old boys and girls according to WHO standards. Height and weight were measured twice and averaged according to the standard established by"China Health Research Students Handbook."BMI was calculated as weight (kg) divided by the square of height(m2). Different BMI classification criteria were use for evalution of asarcia, overweight and obesity according to students age.Result:1. The prevalence of anemia in students from primary school in Suzhou was 29.9% and it was the highest among students aged 6 to 7 years .2. The prevalence of stunting, overweight and obesity were 8.7%, 3.6% and 3.6% respectively among students in Suzhou. The students in primary school had the highest prevalence for stunting, overweight and obesity.3. Top three healthy eating behaviors among students in Suzhou city had breakfast and vegetables frequently,drank milk every week .Top three unhealthy eating behaviors among students in Suzhou city were food choice and preference for eating sweet food and street food. The proportion of food choice in stunting students was higher than other students while the proportion of preference for sweet food was higher in obesity students than other ones.4. The satisfaction rate of school lunch provided were low in students and parents, especially as the variety and taste of meal.5. Student nutritional meal plan were highly agreed by students, parents, class advisers and school administrators, whose acceptance rates were all above 90%.6. Besides safety assurance and meeting nutritional requirements, the study population pay more attention to meal variety and taste than other qualities. The price they can receive was between 6 to 7 yuan and the dish plan for every meal they liked most were one big serving animal food plus one small serving animal food with one to three kinds of vegetables.7. Most of school lunch suppliers attained first grade as the assessment from the categorization and quantified classification administration government with 64.9% of school lunch supplies having nutritionist to give nutrition guidance and 56% enterprises with more than 4 years food supply experience.Conclusion: The prevalence of anemia and obesity are high among students in Suzhou City. High prevalence of obesity was accompanied by high prevalence of stunting in students which may atttribute to unhealthy eating behaviors and unacceptable school lunch for little variety and poor taste. These finging suggest a need for proper nutritional interventions promoting healthier eating behaviors. There were high agreement in the awareness of importance, price, variety and taste of students nutritional meals among students, parents, and class advisers although there were still some difficulties. It will be feasible to implement the plan of student nutritional meal to improve and enhance the nutritional health level of students in Suzhou City through carefully working out practical scheme.