“A Study to Assess the Knowledge on Ill Effects of Junk Foods among Students at Selected School in Puducherry.”

Abstract

Introduction: Children grow, develop, and learn throughout their lives, starting at birth. School children plays, learns, speaks, and acts offers important clues about his or her development. Nurse can help child's development by providing a safe and loving home. The most common issues among the school children is eating of junk foods. The most common and frequent ill effects of junk foods on health is obesity, memory loss, and poor concentrations. The common cause of intake of junk food is the advertisement, taste and colorful appearance.
Statement Of the Problem:
A study to assess the knowledge on ill effects of junk foods among students at selected school in Puducherry.
Objectives Of The Study:
• To assess the level of knowledge regarding junk foods among students(11-13 years) in a selected school.
• To determine the harmful effects of junk foods among students(11-13 years)
• To associate the effectiveness of knowledge score among the students (11-13years) with their selected demographicvariables.
Research Methodology:The design adopted was non experimental research design. The population of the study is eighth standard school students. The study sample was school children of age group 11-13 years. The period of data collection was one week. Totally 30 school students in a selected school was selected by convenient sampling technique. The data was gathered and analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistical method and interpretations were made on the basis of the objectives of the study.
Result:
1) By using frequency and percentage wise distribution of knowledge regarding ill effects of junk foods on health among school children reveals that out of 30 students, 2(6.7%) have inadequate knowledge, 28(93.3%) have moderate knowledge and 0(0%) have adequate knowledge.
2) The findings reveal that their mean and standard deviation values are 14.6 and 2.66 respectively.
3) By using association of knowledge regarding ill effects of junk food on health among school children with their selected demographic variables shows that statistically significant association with religion, junk food as breakfast, check nutritive value, aware of chemical present and amount spent for junk food per week. There was no association between demographic variables such as age of the child, gender, reason for junk food consumption, favorite junk food and frequency of junk food per week.

Recommendations
Based on findings of the present study, the following recommendations have been made,
• A study could be conducted with larger size.
• A similar study could be performed for a longer duration.
• This study could also be conducted as a comparative study using post experimental test.
• The study can be done as a quasi-experimental design.