A Pragmatic Review to Assist Planning and Practice in Delivering Nutrition Education to Indigenous Youth

• Published in: Nutrients 2019-02, Vol.11 (3), p.510
• Main Authors: Kagie, Robin, Lin, Szu-Yu Nancy, Hussain, Mohammad Akhtar, Thompson, Sandra C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; adolescents; Child; Child Abuse; children; educational resources; guidelines; Health Education; health promotion; Health Promotion - organization & administration; Health Services, Indigenous; Humans; Internet; nutrition education; nutritional intervention; parents; planning; Review; students; teachers; youth
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu11030510

Many health promotion campaigns have incorporated multi-component nutrition interventions to promote healthy diet-related behaviours among Indigenous communities, particularly children and adolescents. However, these campaigns show mixed results and while research often describes outcomes of approaches and interventions, it does not extensively describe implementation processes and best practices for nutrition education for Indigenous youth. To enhance knowledge and understanding of best processes in nutritional education approaches with Indigenous youth, we conducted a search using multiple databases including PubMed, Google Scholar, the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet and Australian government research databases to identify relevant peer-reviewed and grey literature as well as educational resources, such as websites and handbooks for teachers, parents, and students. We list and describe common features of successful nutritional interventions in Indigenous settings, steps for nutrition education targeting youth, school-based nutrition education for different ages, and general guidelines for teaching Indigenous students. Current best practice and knowledge gaps for the delivery of nutrition education to Indigenous youth are described.