ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1702418
This article is part of the Research TopicYouth Mental HealthView all 13 articles
Impact of a Brief Educational Intervention on Eating Habits in a Sample of Peruvian Adolescents Aged 10 to 12 Years: A Preliminary Study
Provisionally accepted
- Universidad Peruana Union, Lima District, Peru
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
ABSTRAC Introduction: Currently, the prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents is a relevant public health concern. In this context, schools are considered a suitable setting for promoting healthy eating habits from an early age. Within this framework, the present study aimed to preliminarily explore the impact of a brief nutritional education intervention on eating habits in a sample of adolescents aged 10 to 12 years from a public school in Lima, Peru. Materials and Methods: A quantitative study with a quasi-experimental design was conducted, including an experimental group (n = 16) and a control group (n = 8), under a pretest–posttest scheme. The total sample consisted of 23 adolescents aged 10 to 12 years, selected through simple random sampling. An eating habits questionnaire was administered before and after the educational intervention. The educational program lasted two months and comprised six sessions. Results: The brief nutritional program produced a significant improvement in the eating habits of the experimental group (p < .001), whereas the control group showed no changes (p = .495). In addition, both groups were equivalent at pretest (p = .928), but at posttest the experimental group exhibited a significant difference compared to the control group (p = .004), confirming the effectiveness of the intervention. Conclusion: The findings of this study provide preliminary evidence that brief educational interventions in school settings may contribute to the improvement of eating habits. These results support the relevance of considering nutritional education as a preventive strategy within public health policies to promote healthy lifestyles from early ages.
Keywords: Nutritional education, Eating Habits, adolescents, Peru, Nutritional intervention
Received: 09 Sep 2025; Accepted: 23 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Garcia-Castillo, Elera-Campos, Rodríguez Vásquez and Javier-Aliaga. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: David Javier-Aliaga, davidjavieraliaga@gmail.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.