Efficacy of Nutrition Counselling on the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Working Women

Seventy working women aged between 35-45 yrs belonging to middle income group were selected randomly and divided equally into two groups - Experimental (E) and Control (C). Nutrition counselling (NC) was imparted to group E for a period of three months by nine individual and three group contacts through nutrition module, lectures, participatory, discussions, demonstrations etc. The subjects of group E were educated about various nutrient requirements, functions of different nutrients, nutritional disorders their control and prevention, meal planning and cooking practices etc. The evaluation of NC was done through a composite questionnaire by pretesting (T1) and post testing (T 2) the nutrition knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of the subjects. The data revealed that the gain in KAP scores were 3.96, 8.35, 1.61 and 0.95, 0.59, 0.22 in group E and C respectively. Further, the quantum of improvement in KAP in group E was 1.40, 1.57 and 1.14 times, while 1.09, 1.04 and 1.02 in group C at T2. Adoption of desirable meal preparation and cooking practices also improved in group E. Results of the present study indicated that there was positive effect of NC in group E in terms of improvement in gain in scores and adoption of desirable eating pattern. It is suggested that there is great need of proper selection of foods in the daily dietaries which can be imparted by educating the women by changing their attitudes regarding nutrition and health through nutrition counselling and the interaction needs to be for longer duration i.e. minimum for six months to bring about desirable changes.