PD348 - IMPACT OF STRUCTURED NUTRITION EDUCATION INTERVENTION ON GUT HEALTH AWARENESS AMONG ADOLESCENT GIRLS: A PRE–POST STUDY

PD348

IMPACT OF STRUCTURED NUTRITION EDUCATION INTERVENTION ON GUT HEALTH AWARENESS AMONG ADOLESCENT GIRLS: A PRE–POST STUDY

E. B. CANDAY^1,*, A. Tulaskar²

¹HOD Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre, ²Department of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, Dr. BMN College of Home Science, Mumbai, India

Rationale: The gut microbiome plays an important role in digestive health, regulation of immune system and homoeostasis. Dietary fiber, probiotics and prebiotics are dietary components, which modulates the composition and functioning of the gut microbes. Despite of the growing evidence, awareness about these dietary components is limited, mostly among adolescents. This highlights the need for targeted educational intervention.

Methods: A quantitative pre-post interventional study was conducted to evaluate the impact of the developed nutrition education intervention among 100 junior college-going adolescents (16–18 years)  residing in Mumbai. Their baseline awareness about the concept of digestive system, gut microbiome, probiotics, prebiotics, dietary fiber, and lifestyle factors was assessed using a self- developed validated 35-item questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha = 0.718). Three sessions were conducted to evaluate this intervention. Each session lasted for 45 minutes and was conducted once per week. The same questionnaire was used to assess the pre-post intervention assessment. Data collected from the pre-test and post-test were analyzed using SPSS at a 5% level of significance. Paired sample t-test was used to compare the pre- and post-test scores.

Results: Significant improvement in post-test awareness was observed across all five domains (p < 0.001). Effect sizes were calculated using Cohen’s d and the result shown large effect sizes across all five domains. This indicates that the developed nutrition education intervention was effective in improving awareness of gut- health related nutritional concepts among the participants. 

Conclusion: Integrating such structured gut-health focused nutrition education in early phase such as adolescence, a critical transitional phase into adulthood may enhance early dietary 

Disclosure of Interest: None declared