Health education at scholl: nursing preventing malnutrition in children - DOI: 10.4025/cienccuidsaude.v7i3.6508

Abstract

Brazil is surrounded by cultural and socioeconomic disparities. Thus, it is known that one of the causes for malnutrition is the lack of food, which is resultant of this reality, many times disguised by other illnesses such as influenza or diarrhea. It was aimed to identify the children awareness on health food; investigate the parameters on infant malnutrition at school, and develop health education strategies that could be used at the school as prevention on infant malnutrition. It is a qualitative study of ethnographic approach carried out in a private school of the Fortaleza periphery, with 45 children. Data collection initiated with the measurement of children weight/height, followed by playful activities, using the participant observation as an instrument. The data analysis was performed through description and documentation of the talks which generated 3 general topics of thematic nature: Healthful Feeding, Corporal and Feed Hygiene, Knowledge about Influenza and Diarrhea. The results revealed that the children enlarged their knowledge on the subject, reaffirming the need of health educative strategies in the school scenario aiming at the health promotion and improvement on the quality of life of the children and their family.