JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Most Canadians consume very little pulse-based food products.

Objective:

The current pilot study sought to investigate outcomes of a teacher-led school-based food literacy intervention focused on Pulses Make Perfect Sense (PMPS) in two high schools in Saskatoon, Canada.

Methods:

The intervention comprised 7 key themes focused on pulses which includes defining pulses, health/nutritional benefits of pulses, incorporating pulses into meals, the role of pulses for the environment and food security, development of pulse-based products, taste testing/sensory analysis, and pulses around the world. A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess knowledge, attitudes, practices and barriers regarding pulse consumption in students at baseline and endline. Teachers were interviewed at the end of the intervention. Descriptive statistics and nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test were used for analysis.

Results:

In total, 41 and 32 students participated in the baseline and endline assessments, respectively. At baseline, the median knowledge score was 9, attitude score was 6 and barriers score was 0. At endline, the median knowledge score was 10, attitude score was 7 and barriers score was 1. There was a significant difference between baseline and endline scores in knowledge (<0.05). Barriers to pulse consumption included: parents do not cook or consume pulses at home, they did not like the taste of pulse and, often preferred other food choices over pulses. The teachers indicated that the pulse food literacy teaching resources were informative, local and easy to use.

Conclusions:

Despite the improvement in knowledge, attitude and practice related to pulse consumption did not change significantly at the end of the intervention. Future studies with larger sample are needed to determine impact of PMPS on knowledge, attitude, and practice of high school students.