ASSESSMENT OF LEVEL OF NUTRITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AMONG SENIOR SECONDARY STUDENTS IN OREDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EDO STATE NIGERIA

A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the level of nutritional knowledge among senior secondary students in Oredo local government area of Edo state. Two objectives guided the study, and one hypothesis was raised and tested under 5% significant level. The population of the study was all the eight thousand ,three hundred and fifty two (8352) senior secondary school students in the thirteen (13) public secondary schools in the local government area as at April 2023. The sample size was two hundred and fourty (240) senior secondary schools students. Purposive sampling technique was used to chose the sample size. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire. The Cronbach alpha statistic was used in the determination of the reliability of the study which gave a Cronbach alpha coefficients is 0.817. Data was analyzed using frequency and percentage .while independent t-test statistics was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study showed that majority of the students in senior secondary schools in Oredo LGA to a large extent possess nutrition knowledge. Also, it was found that there is a significant difference in the nutrition knowledge among students in Oredo LGA based on gender. One of the recommendations is that nutrition subjects should be made compulsory for secondary school students (JSS and SSS classes) before these students proceed to their tertiary education. This will assist them to consume healthy and nutritious foods.