Evaluation and Comparison of School-based Nutrition Programmes in the UK, Saudi Arabia and South-east Asia (Singapore and Malaysia) The WritePass Journal

Evaluation and Comparison of School-based Nutrition Programmes in the UK, Saudi Arabia and South-east Asia (Singapore and Malaysia) Introduction Evaluation and Comparison of School-based Nutrition Programmes in the UK, Saudi Arabia and South-east Asia (Singapore and Malaysia) ). As Toh et al. (2002) suggest, there are also high levels of obesity in Singapore, amongst certain socioeconomic groups, with this obesity negatively affecting children’s health. As Bundy et al. (2006) note, school-based nutrition programmes are useful in terms of improving the health of schoolchildren affected by poor nutritional intake, with these programmes being ubiquitous in many different countries, both low and high income countries. The main aims of such programmes are to improve the nutritional intake of schoolchildren in order to improve their overall health and cognitive functioning to be able to improve their overall academic performance (Bundy et al., 2006). Such programs have been successful in encouraging a greater intake of fruit and vegetables in fast food-addicted children and, as a result, in decreasing the incidence of overweight and obesity (Howerton et al., 2007). As Oldroyd et al. (2008) suggest, the effectiveness of nutritional interventions differs according to socioeconomic status with children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds being more likely to drop out of such programmes and being less likely, therefore, to see the benefits o f such programmes. Suggested methodology It is suggested that a quantitative survey is developed that would be administered to various public health officials in the UK, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Singapore. This survey would be administered with a view to collecting data, which would allow the main aims and objectives of the suggested research to be explored. Expected outcomes The main expected outcomes would be the development of the thesis, via the exploration of the research question and the aims and objectives of the research. It is expected that several research articles would also be developed and that conference talks would be given. Suggested timetable The research would take place over a period of three years; the first six months would be used to prepare the literature review, with the next year being used to collect the survey data. The following six months would be used for data analysis and the remaining six month period would be used to write up the findings and to complete the written thesis. References Abou-Zeid, A-H. et al. (2006). Anaemia and nutritional status of schoolchildren living at Saudi Arabian high altitude areas. Saudi Medical Journal 27(6), pp. 862-869. Al-Almale, S.M. (2005). Prevalence of obesity and overweight among Saudi adolescents in Eastern Saudi Arabia. Saudi Medical Journal 26(4), pp. 607-611. Al-Mekhlafi, M.S. et al. (2008). Current prevalence and predictors of protein-energy malnutrition amongst schoolchildren in rural Peninsular Malaysia. Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health 39(5), pp. 922-931. Bundy, D. et al. (2006). School-based health and nutrition programmes, in Jamison et al. (eds.), Disease control priorities in developing countries. World Bank. Howerton, M.W. et al. (2007). School-based nutrition programs produced a moderate increase in fruit and vegetable consumption: meta and pooling analyses from seven studies. Journal of Nutritional Education and Behaviour 39(4), pp. 186-196. Karlsen, S. et al. (2013). Ethnic variations in overweight and obesity among children over time: findings from analyses of Health Surveys for England 1998-2009. Pediatric Obesity doi: 10.1111/j.2047-6310.2013.00159.x Oldroyd, J. et al. (2008). The effectiveness of nutrition interventions on dietary outcomes by relative social disadvantage: a systematic review. Journal of Epidemiological and Community Health 62, pp. 573-579. Toh, C-M. et al. (2002). School based intervention has reduced obesity in Singapore. BMJ 324, pp. 447-462.