OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to analyze and compare the nutrition knowledge of teachers and students who participated in the study "Promotion of healthy eating habits by schools" and were submitted to two different strategies of nutrition education in schools of the Federal District, Brazil. METHODS: The study administered two strategies of nutrition education intervention: nutrition intervention (A) administration of educational activities in the school community by the research team; and nutrition intervention (B) educational activities were administered by teachers who participated in the training workshops..The knowledge of the students was assessed by an instrument based on the food pyramid and another one based on personal hygiene. The teachers were assessed by means of a true-or-false questionnaire. RESULTS: Four schools submitted to nutrition intervention A (180 students and 19 teachers) and four schools submitted to nutrition intervention B (129 students and 16 teachers) were assessed. The average number of correct answers given by the students on the instrument based on the food pyramid was 3.2 for students in intervention A and 2.9 for students in intervention B (p=0.37). On the instrument about personal hygiene for the same students, 61.1% and 73.6%, respectively, answered it correctly (p=0.10). The teachers submitted to interventions A and B answered a similar number of questions correctly, around 90.0% (p=0.06). CONCLUSION: This study showed that two different types of nutrition education intervention were equally useful to promote nutrition knowledge among teachers and students. Therefore, it is necessary to promote nutrition education programs in schools, in accordance with the National Food and Nutrition Policies, which regard health promotion strategies.
Evaluation of educative process; Food and nutrition education; School; Nutrition; Promotion of health eating habits
