[The influence of health education on nutrition]

To assess the effectiveness of health education in relation to the changes it produces in both information and the general population's outlook on food consumption. DESIGN. A controlled intervention study, with a randomized double-blind sample. PLACE. Village covered by the Fuenlabrada Health Centre. PARTICIPANTS. 88 families agreed to take part, out of the 408 that made up the total sample for the field study on food consumption previously undertaken. 24 families in the intervention group (46% loss) and 35 in the control group (20% loss) completed the study. ACTIVITY. A group of nurses with diplomas in Health Education delivered advice and instruction on diet and health to the families in the study group, during April, May and June, 1990. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS. Two kinds of questionnaires, both previously validated, were used to measure the varying levels of food consumption and of information. These questionnaires were filled by both sample groups (intervention and control), before and after the health education. The level of knowledge, taking into account the number of positive answers in the information questionnaire, was significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control one (p less than 0.005). The level of food consumption was significantly higher in the meat intervention group, attaining an average of 3.08 (2.46-3.67); whereas in the control group an average of 4.39 was obtained. (3.72-5.06) (p less than 0.005). CONCLUSIONS. There was scant participation among the healthy population.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)