432 Nutritional Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of High School Girls Living in Kuwait: a Pilot Study

Aim of the work This study was designed to study the nutritional knowledge, attitude and practice of adolescent school girls in Kuwait to assess the current situation and advise the need for directed nutritional programs. Methods A dietary questionnaire on nutritional knowledge, food habits, eating behavior and food frequency sheet as well as anthropometric measurements were done to 72 school girls aged 15 to 17 years who were recruited from a governmental high school in Kuwait. Results Among the studied girls nearly half stated that the family was their primary nutritional knowledge source compared to approximately one fifth who chose the internet, another one fifth were from books and journals. More than half of the studied girls had below average knowledge about different nutrients and their function. This deficient knowledge affected their food frequency sheet and limited their choices to below average in about half of cases. Their life style was less than satisfactory in over two thirds where the girls preferred sedentary activities compared to active exercise. Fortunately, only minority of the studied girls were overweight compared to three quarters having their body mass index within accepted range. Conclusion Although there is insignificant effect of the deficient nutritional knowledge and dietary behavior of the studied high school girls on their BMI, this deficient nutritional knowledge is likely to have a negative impact on their nutritional status as future mothers as well as the nutritional status of their children to come since family is the commonest source of nutritional knowledge.