The effects of board game-based nutrition education on nutritional behaviors, self-efficacy, and attitudes of primary school children

Abstract

Background Developing healthy eating habits from childhood through nutrition education is crucial for healthy societies, and game-based educational approaches enhance learning by offering more engaging alternatives to traditional methods. Aim The aim of our study is to design a board game that enables primary school children to recognize food and to evaluate the effects of this game-based nutrition education intervention on children's nutritional behaviors, self-efficacy and attitudes. Methods This pre-test post-test randomized controlled experimental study included 50 fourth-grade students aged 9-11 years, 24 in the intervention group and 26 in the control group. The intervention group received the FoodHunter game once a week for 4 weeks. The participants' nutritional behaviors were evaluated with the Food Behaviour Scale (FBS) and the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), their nutritional behaviors with the FBS, their nutritional self-efficacy with the Children's Dietary Self-Efficacy Scale (CDSS), and their nutrition attitudes with the Nutrition Attitude Subscale (NAS) before and after the intervention. After the intervention, the game was evaluated with FoodHunter Evaluation Questions (FHEQ). Results In the FoodHunter intervention group, the FBS, CDSS, and NAS scores were significantly greater in the postintervention group than in the control group (p < 0.05). A moderate positive and significant correlation was found between the FHEQ score and the NAS score (r = 0.419, p < 0.05) and between the FHEQ score and the FBS score (r = 0.474, p < 0.05). Conclusions This study confirms the effectiveness of the developed FoodHunter game intervention in improving primary school children's nutritional behaviors, self-efficacy, and attitudes.