Nutrition Education Knowledge as Correlate of Nutritional Status and Practice of Adolescent in Secondary Schools in Enugu State

The study examined the relationship between nutrition education knowledge and nutritional status and practice of adolescent students in Secondary Schools in Enugu State. The study was guided by three specific purposes and three research questions. Correlational survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study consisted of 21478 Upper Basic students in Enugu State. The sample size for the study is 396 Upper Basic education students drawn using multi-stage sampling procedure. The data for the study was collected using “Nutrition Education Knowledge Questionnaire (NEKQ)” and “Nutritional Practice Questionnaire (NPQ)” developed by the researcher, and Anthropometric Measurement tools and record sheet. The NEKQ and NPQ were to face validated and tested for reliability using Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient test, which result show an overall reliability coefficient of 0.92 and 0.84 respectively. The findings revealed that there is a positive relationship between nutrition education knowledge and nutritional status of adolescent students. There is a positive relationship between nutrition education knowledge and nutritional practice of adolescent students. There is a positive relationship among nutrition education knowledge, nutritional status and nutritional practice of adolescent students. It was recommended that teachers should strengthen nutrition education by adopting practical, learner-centered instructional approaches to enhance students' nutrition education knowledge among adolescents.