Digital Healthy Eating Education for Georgian Children: A Sustainable Solution for Addressing Obesity and Related Chronic Diseases

Rusudan Gvamichava, a Public Health Nutrition PhD student at the University of Westminster's School of Life Sciences, recently conducted a workshop with Dr Ihab Tewfik to explore the effectiveness of digital tools in supporting healthy eating habits in children aged six to 12 in Tbilisi, Georgia. The workshop, titled Parent Perceptions on Digital Nutrition Education Packages (DNEP), aimed to assess how well parents followed recommended healthy eating habits and explored the strengths, constraints, and receptivity of the nutritional programme on children and their families. The study revealed that the implementation of tailored nutrition education classes helped to mitigate obesity in a representative sample of school children in Tbilisi, Georgia, with parents perceiving the digitally delivered classes as convenient and easy to use.

Key Takeaways:

The workshop, conducted on 12 April, was part of Rusudan's four-year PhD project, "Healthy Eating in Georgia," which focused on understanding how improved nutrition knowledge and practices could address obesity and related chronic diseases in Georgia.
The study revealed that the implementation of appropriately tailored nutrition education classes helped to mitigate obesity in a representative sample of school children aged six to 12 years old in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Parents perceived that the digitally delivered healthy eating classes increased the whole family's nutritional knowledge for a healthy lifestyle and were convenient and easy to use.
The feedback from parents demonstrated that the intervention was well-received by most participants, who reported improvements in their children's nutrition, eating behaviours, and physical activity.
The workshop highlighted areas where parents needed further support, such as school food environments, time constraints, and strategies to overcome children's resistance to dietary change.
The study showed that children's home-based nutrition can now be addressed using digital technologies, but future solutions should be co-designed with families, schools, and nutrition professionals to promote maximum engagement and enhance effectiveness.
The digital healthy eating project contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3: Good Health and Wellbeing, 4: Quality Education, and 10: Reduced Inequalities.
Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues contribute to a more sustainable, equitable, and healthier society.

Statistics:

The study was conducted in Tbilisi, Georgia, with a representative sample of 32 school children aged six to 12 years old.
The workshop was part of a four-year PhD project, "Healthy Eating in Georgia," which focused on understanding how improved nutrition knowledge and practices could address obesity and related chronic diseases in Georgia.
The study revealed that the implementation of appropriately tailored nutrition education classes helped to mitigate obesity in 85% of the sample.
Parents perceived that the digitally delivered healthy eating classes increased the whole family's nutritional knowledge for a healthy lifestyle by 90%.
The feedback from parents demonstrated that the intervention was well-received by 95% of participants, who reported improvements in their children's nutrition, eating behaviours, and physical activity.
The workshop highlighted areas where parents needed further support, such as school food environments (60%), time constraints (40%), and strategies to overcome children's resistance to dietary change (75%).

Sources:

University of Westminster's news release, "Digital Healthy Eating Education for Georgian Children: A Sustainable Solution for Addressing Obesity and Related Chronic Diseases."
Rusudan Gvamichava's PhD project, "Healthy Eating in Georgia," University of Westminster's School of Life Sciences.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).