Abstract

This study investigated the current status and needs of nutrition education to help reduce children's sugars intake, according to the annual budget of the Center for Children's Foodservice Management (CCFM). Through an online survey conducted in October 2015, the 115 CCFMs participated in this survey and they were divided into the following three groups according to the annual project budget: 1~2 million won (${\leq}2M$; n=25), 3~4 million won (3~4 M; n=60), and 5 million and over won (${\geq}5M$; n=30). A total of 8.0% of the ${\leq}2M$ group respondents provided nutrition education on the sugars intake to young children as a main topic, which was significantly lower than those of the 3~4 M(16.7%) and ${\geq}5M$ (16.7%) groups (p<0.05). The most common reasons given for not delivering nutrition education on sugars were "insufficient nutrition education information and materials" for the ${\leq}2M$ (47.1%), and "more urgent nutrition education topics than that" for the 3~4 M (66.7%) and ${\geq}5M$ (50.0%). The percentage of nutrition education on children's sugars intake provided to their parents was low, showing about 8% in the ${\leq}2M$ group, 28.3% in the 3~4 M group and 23.3% in the ${\geq}5M$ group (p<0.05). However, more than 90% of the respondents answered providing nutrition education on sugars intake reduction to children was needed regardless of the annual project budget. The results indicate a great need for the development and dissemination of standardized educational programs about children's sugars intake in order to provide a leveled education program regardless of the project budget, and to solve the difficulties of development and operation of nutrition educational programs due to a lack of budget and human resources of CCFMs with less annual project budget to manage the projects.

Keywords

• sugars intake reduction;
• nutrition education;
• center for children's foodservice management;
• budget