Empowering Children to Assess Their Nutritional Status: The Effectiveness of A Nutrition Education Module

Abstract

Various forms of malnutrition occur among school-aged children, including undernutrition, overnutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies. Assessing nutritional status is essential to identify appropriate strategies for preventing more severe nutritional problems. However, many children do not know how to detect their nutritional status early, one of which can be done through anthropometric measurements. This study aimed to determine the effect of the Nergizi Module on improving students’ skills in measuring nutritional status. Method: This study employed a pre-experimental design using a one-group pretest–posttest approach. Respondents were selected through purposive sampling, involving 60 elementary school students in Palembang City, South Sumatra. The intervention was conducted three times through educational sessions using the Nergizi Module developed by the research team. Data were collected by assessing students’ skills in determining nutritional status before and after the intervention using an observation checklist. Univariate analysis was used to describe respondent characteristics, and bivariate analysis was performed using McNemar test. The results showed an improvement in students’ skills after the intervention, where initially only 12 students were categorized as having good skills, increasing to 46 students after the intervention, with a p-value of 0.001 using McNemar test. Health education using educational modules can improve students’ skills in assessing nutritional status through anthropometric measurements. The findings of this study are expected to enhance students’ ability to identify their nutritional status, thereby helping to prevent nutritional problems.