The Effectiveness of Breakfast Education on EnergyIntake, Protein, Nutritional Status and LearningAchievement of Elementary School Children

Abstract

School children (7-12 years) are nutritionally vulnerable groups. Provision of nutrition
with good and correct quality and quantity greatly influences the growth of school-age
children. Breakfast has an important role in meeting energy and nutrient needs. These
nutrients will affect nutritional status and can increase the concentration of learning.
This research aims to analyze the effectiveness of education about breakfast on energy,
protein, nutritional status and learning achievement of elementary school children. The
study design was experimental randomized pretest-posttest control group design. The
sample of this study was elementary students of students aged 9-12 years with a sample
of 56 children who were chosen by simple random sampling at the Muhammadiyah
Elementary School in Surakarta Special Program. The sample was divided into 2 groups,
namely the treatment group (power point media and booklet) and the comparison group
(booklet only). The intervention was carried out for 12 weeks. Paired t test and Wilcoxon
test to analyze differences in energy intake, protein, nutritional status and learning
achievement before and after intervention in each group. Mann Whitney test to analyze
differences between groups. The results of this research was the mean nutritional status
before 0.77 ± 1.60 and after 0.78 ± 1.62. The mean energy intake before 131.57 ± 54.15%
and after 131.49 ± 53.21%. The mean protein intake before 112.45 ± 36.63% and after
112.39 ± 26.15%. The average learning achievement before 80.38 ± 8.25 and after 83.00 ±
4.95. Breakfast habits increased from 82.1% to 89.3%. Differences between groups for
nutritional status data (p = 0.974), energy intake (p = 0.002), protein intake (p = 0.049),
learning achievement (p = 0.001).The conclusion of this research was there were
differences in energy intake, protein and learning achievement between intervention
groups, but there were no differences in nutritional status between groups. Interventions
in the treatment group were more effective than the comparison group.