ROLE OF FOOD ACCESSIBILITY AND NUTRITION EDUCATION IN PROMOTING HEALTHY EATING HABITS AMONG TEENAGERS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN IKA SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, DELTA STATE, NIGERIA

The study investigated the role of food accessibility and nutrition education in promoting healthy eating habits among teenagers in secondary school students in Ika South LGA, Delta State, Nigeria. The main purpose of this study is to examine the role of food accessibility and nutrition education in promoting healthy eating habits among teenagers in secondary school students in Ika South Local Government Area, Delta State. Three research questions were raised and one hypothesis was formulated, tested at 0.5 level of significance. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. the population consisted of 12,500 students enrolled in the 22 public secondary schools and 15 government approved private secondary schools and sample was a total of 240 respondents from six selected secondary schools in the study area, three public and three private secondary schools. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire and data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics mean and standard deviation. Inferential statistics of t-test were used for the hypotheses, and tested at 0.5 level of significance. It was revealed that food accessibility" had a high degree of influence on healthy eating practices of secondary school students, respondents generally perceived nutrition education as having a high extent of influence on healthy eating habits among secondary school students and also respondents generally perceived the identified social, family, economic, behavioural, school and media-related factors as contributing to unhealthy eating habits among secondary school students to a high extent. The study has concluded that adolescents' food access, and nutrition education are significant factors in the promotion of healthy eating habits among adolescents in secondary schools, Ika South Local Government Area, Delta State. It was recommended that healthy school food policies should be put in place by school administrators that limit the availability of sugary drinks, highly processed snack foods and junk foods in the schools.