[Nutrition monitoring in secondary education institutions]

Nutrition provided to children at school is a factor that exerts most significant influence on their health. However, certain issues remain unresolved in the sphere and this initiated nutrition monitoring within the "Demography" Russian National Project. The purpose of this study was to analyze the results of nutrition monitoring in secondary education institutions located in Perm region in order to determine priority indicators for its further estimation. Material and methods. We assessed how meals were organized in secondary schools. Data on school meals were obtained by active questioning that involved using specifically designed questionnaires. These data were collected in 60 institutions in 2021 within the "Improvement of public health" Russian Federal Project, an integral part of the "Demography" Russian National Project and within our own research programs (61 institutions, 2008). A specially designed questionnaire included a description of the diet, the number of pupils covered by meals (both organized and independent), teaching methods on healthy eating, ownership of the school canteen, as well as a request for an approximate 10-day menu. The nutrient and energy value of the diets was calculated. Results. We established several trends after analyzing the results of nutrition monitoring in secondary education institutions in Perm region. First, a number of children who had meals at school tended to decrease with age since it went down by 12% in the 5th-9th grade (p=0.0001) and by 34% in the 10th-11th grade (p<0.001) against the 1st-4th grade (93%). Another trend was a rather low share of children who had two meals at school (not more than 20%). We established a correlation between a number of children provided with meals at school and specific organization of nutrition in a given school. Thus, if meals were provided by an outsourcer, this number went down by two times against schools with their own nutrition units. Organization of nutrition also determined costs of a meal (by 1.4 fold higher if provided by an outsourcer) but did not influence their qualitative (nutrient) structure. A number of children who had meals at school decreased against 2008 with significant differences detected in middle school (by 21%). Certain violations of nutrition regimes were established at various stages in the study. Thus, breaks became shorter than required; intervals between meals either grew or decreased improperly. All this can have certain influence on a number of children who have meals at school. In 2021, meals provided at school conformed to the existing hygienic standards as per nutritional value. Thus, breakfast provided 26-33% of the age-specific physiological needs; lunch, 38-49%. They also contained balanced quantities of basic macronutrients (the content of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in terms of calories: 14, 32 and 54%) but there was still imbalance in contents of minerals (calcium, phosphor, and magnesium: 1 : 1.7 : 0.6) due to calcium deficiency. Conclusion. It is advisable to continue nutrition monitoring with greater attention paid to such indicators as a number of children provided with hot meals, nutrition regime, qualitative and quantitative structure of diets. In addition, it is recommended to estimate a number of children in middle and senior school who have meals at school and are free to choose from several courses.