Stakeholders’ impediments in promoting school nutrition education in South Africa: implications on youth dietary knowledge of excess fats and carbohydrates

There is prevalence of overweight and obesity in South Africa. Evidence of nutrition knowledge and challenges affecting the promotion of nutrition interventions is needed to produce more effective strategies to prevent nutrition problems in school children. The study sought to explore challenges encountered by stakeholders of the school nutrition programme in promoting nutrition education. Furthermore, the study aimed to assess the implications of the stakeholders ‘challenges on learners’ dietary knowledge of excess fats and carbohydrates. The study took place in eight secondary schools in the Pinetown District, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The qualitative data from nine interviewees who were stakeholders of the school nutrition programme were analysed using thematic content analysis. Quantitative data were collected from 108 grade 12 learners using self-administered questionnaires. The quantitative data was coded, collated and analysed using SPSS. Independent sample t-test was used to evaluate if there was significant difference between gender and the mean values. One-way ANOVA was used to establish if there was any significant difference between the mean values of learners’ knowledge on various nutrition principles. Learners displayed inadequate knowledge of a healthy diet (34%), the importance of vegetables in the diet (71%), the health risks of excess fats (64.8%) and excess carbohydrates (77.8%), and nutritious food to be eaten daily (40.7%). Comparison of group means of various nutrition principles using one way ANOVA indicated significant difference at p < 0.05 level [F(4, 528) = 43.3, P < 0.001]. The 44 male respondents had significantly higher scores for the awareness of health risks of excess fats t(103) = 2.6, p =0.01 and excess carbohydrates t (103) = 2.7, p =0.01 compared to 61 females. Each food group could be listed only by less than 22% of the participants. Challenges encountered in promoting nutrition education included time constraints, lack of training on nutrition principles, lack of supporting documents and lack of nutrition principles in the curriculum. The inadequate knowledge displayed by learners and lack of training and supporting documents in promoting nutrition education indicate areas that can be targeted by intervention programmes to improve nutrition knowledge of learners and stakeholders.&nbsp