Assessing the Dietary Practices and Anthropometric Outcomes of Students Consuming Mid-day Meals Versus Home-Cooked Meals

Introduction: Early childhood and adolescence are prime years that people spend in school. These formative years give the school ample opportunities to impart certain aspects of lifestyle and healthcare to the student, in addition to academics. School health programs are vital in providing comprehensive education and healthcare services. The objectives of the study are to enlist the socio-demographic factors affecting the nutritional level between students who enrolled for the mid-day meal scheme and those who did not.

Methodology: This is a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study, which was carried out between children who enrolled in the mid-day meal program and home-cooked meals for students from 3rd to 12th grade in Faridabad. The study was conducted by the Department of Public Health Dentistry, Faridabad, from January to June 2024.

Result: It was determined that 162 (53.6%) males and 222 (74.9%) females were obese. 332 (55.3%) believed that social media had an impact on their dietary decisions, while 268 (44.7%) disagreed. When asked to rate how many healthy food alternatives were available at their school, 53 (8.8%) of them said it was great, 194 (32.3%) said it was good, 196 (32.7%) said it was fair, and 157 (26.2%) said it was poor. 236 (78.7%) parents of the mid-day meal group never had dietary supplemental education, which is why children have indigent nutritional status. The mean waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) was calculated as 0.92 ± 0.43 and 0.88 ± 0.69 with significant values of 0.00 (p≤0.05) in the home-cooked and mid-day meal-consuming groups respectively.

Conclusion: Students consuming home-cooked meals showed a better WHR for age than those consuming mid-day meals. Children of parents with high education levels have good nutritional status and are healthier as compared to children with parents who have low education levels. Thus, there is a dire need to include school health programs to provide healthy and nutritious food to children, in need.