Execution of an Educational Food Intervention in Schoolchildren, Before and During Confinement by Covid-19

Abstract

Background: The pandemic and COVID-19 confinement changed the living conditions of schoolchildren and their families. Objective: To describe the implementation of an educational food intervention in schoolchildren at the Monseñor Gerardo Valencia Cano Educational Institution, Medellín, Colombia, before and during the COVID-19confinement. Materials and Methods: Qualitative research supported by quantitative variables. Data collection and analysis
were based on grounded theory. The population consisted of schoolchildren and parents of the Monseñor Gerardo
Valencia Cano Educational Institution. Before COVID-19, four focus groups and a semi-structured survey were conducted with 416 students and their parents, and four more focus groups were conducted with 42 teachers; these were carried out until saturation was reached. During the confinement, 237 surveys were administered to families (students and parents). Nutritional status was evaluated. Results: 37% of the students between third and seventh grade were overweight. It was possible to identify in a participatory way the risk and protective factors against excess weight, in order to define an educational food intervention from and with the subjects. The conceptual nodes of the intervention were healthy eating, cooking methods, preparation of healthy food, and food for the prevention of excess weight
and colon cancer. Conclusions: The recognition of the nutritional conditions before and after the confinement of the schoolchildren and their families, or the change of these throughout the educational intervention, helped to achieve coherence between the needs, educational objectives, and methodologies implemented. The fact of having schoolchildren and their parents gathered in the same space (home) during confinement generated a microenvironment that favored behaviors that triggered an improvement in family eating habits.