The School Milk Project Conducted in Primary Schools and Parents' Views on the Issue

Year 2019, Volume: 7 Issue: 3, 222 - 227, 18.12.2019

Sinan Tüfekci , Bilge Sertel Tüfekci Birol Topçu

Abstract

Introduction: The school milk program (SMP) is a
practice that provides access to large audiences to achieve the goals of public
health protection and improvement. It is aimed to have primary school students acquire
the habit of drinking milk, to contribute to adequate and balanced nutrition
and to support healthy growth and development. In this study, it was aimed to
learn the thoughts of the families of the children included in the SMP about
the practice.

 

Material and Methods: In the second term of the 2013-2014
academic year, 200 ml UHT milk was distributed to 6.5 million students by the
Ministry of Health 3 days a week. This study was carried out by using a survey
method including 13 questions to learn the thoughts of families of children involved
in SMP and living in Malkara district of Tekirdağ in 2014 about SMP. Four of
the thirteen questions consisted of the questions prepared to determine  demographic characteristics and nine of them were
designed to learn the importance of milk in the prevention of diseases in the
later years by the implementation of the school milk project and children's development
and growth processes of milk consumption.

Results: Educational status of families; of
them, 1.47% was illiterate, 35.8% was primary school graduates, 12.9% was secondary
school graduates, 28.97% was high school graduates, 20.79% was university
graduates. 73.16% of children have breakfast in the mornings at school.
Considering the weekly milk consumption in children, no milk consumption was
6.38%, 1-3 days consumption was 37.32%, 4-6 days consumption was 19.64%, everyday
milk consumption was 36.6%. Of the families, 91.49% had knowledge about the SMP
and 99.51% stated that the form was filled out and their permissions were
granted. Of the parents, 83.63% considered that it was necessary and 16.37% thought
that it was not necessary. Of the parents, 98.36% replied “yes” and 1.64%
replied “no” to the question of whether the SMP contributed to the growth of
the child. Of the families participating in the SMP survey, 66.78% considered that
milk was preventive against chronic diseases in elderly ages, 33.22% replied “no”
to the question. A statistically significant relationship was determined between
the monthly income of the families and the weekly milk consumption of the
children.    

Keywords

school milk project, nutrition of school-aged children, cow's milk

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