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