Percepção de estudantes do 7° ano do ensino fundamental acerca da alimentação saudável e aspectos relacionados: um estudo no município de Jaçanã/RN.

Abstract

The school environment is the place where health promotion should be routinely carried out, as it is seen that its role in society is to integrate traditions, playing an essential role in the construction of values, habits, and ways of life, including the issue of eating habits, which is essential for the health of students and, consequently, of society as a whole. In this sense, the National School Feeding Program (PNAE) is configured as a policy aimed at strengthening and realizing the right to food for students in public schools throughout the country. The objective of this study was to analyze the perceptions of 7th-grade elementary school students regarding their understanding of healthy eating. This is a quantitative, descriptive, exploratory study, with documentary, experimental, and field study procedures. Pedagogical activities were carried out with the students according to their age group. The research was conducted at the Ana Clementina da Conceição Municipal School (EMACC), with a 7th-grade public school class located in the urban area of Jaçanã, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. A structured questionnaire was administered to investigate whether students were aware of the levels of food processing. Finally, the questionnaire was administered again to understand the influence of the educational activity on students' knowledge of the topic. All data were digitized into Microsoft Office for Windows® 2019, and descriptive statistical analysis was performed using SPSS for Windows (version 13.0). The results showed that of the total number of students, 56 were female, 55 were male, and 5 chose not to identify their gender. Regarding the relationship between school and a "space where it is possible to learn about food," 61 students believe that school is "sometimes" a suitable place to learn about food, representing more than half of the target audience studied (52.6%). This research revealed that students don't always see school as a place to build knowledge about food and, consequently, health, as 52.6% believe that "sometimes, yes," school is a place to learn about food. Furthermore, we noted that they understand the concept of healthy eating, but in practice, they have difficulty differentiating the levels of food processing, while 33.6% couldn't differentiate a processed food from an ultra-processed one. And this relates to the eating habits of these children and their families. In this sense, we conclude how important the role of schools is as instructors and disseminators of knowledge, working to develop interdisciplinary approaches, such as nutrition. This also highlights the importance of the National Nutrition Program (PNAE), EAN initiatives, and the use of the Food Guide for the Brazilian Population.