Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the elementary school dietitian's status and recognition of nutrition education (NE) in Incheon. A cross-sectional study was carried out using a self-administered questionnaire and subjects were 100 elementary school dietitians. The results are as follows As for training in NE, 61.2% of the dietitians attended training in NE. After training in NE, 86.5% of the dietitians who attended training in NE were more concerned about NE. Also 59.5% of the dietitians gave students NE and most of them did as a weekly printout 2-4 times per month. There was a significant difference in experience of NE for teachers between subgroups by experience of training in NE; while 48.1% of the dietitians with training in NE gave teachers NE, 20.0% of the dietitians without training in NE gave teachers NE. The main reason for not giving NE was too much work load and low concern of school administration. Also 96.4% of the dietitians answered that NE is necessary in elementary school and the main reason for being necessary was correction of unbalanced diet and good table manner, As for proper time to start NE for children, 51.8% of dietitians answered 'kindergarten' and 45.8% of them answered 'lower grade of elementary school'. As for effective type for NE, 59.5% of the dietitians answered 'NE as a part of other subject' and 23.8% of them answered 'NE as a separate subject'. Also 79.5% of the dietitians answered 'teacher' as the suitable person for NE. Most of the dietitians recognized menu formation as the ideal major work load and office work as the most time-consuming work load. As to job satisfaction, most of them were dissatisfied with office work and NE. Therefore, it is nationally supported for elementary school students' health and well-being that school dietitians as NE specialists give NE with minimizing their office work and developing a standardized NE program.

• Keywords: nutrition education; elementary school; dietitian