Background:

The Interactive Group Nutritional Education method has been used with adults for twenty years at the Nutrition School of Costa Rica University.

Objective:

To describe the application of the Interactive Group Nutrition Education method in projects for children, applied by Nutrition School students in public schools located in La Unión, Cartago.

Materials and Methods:

12 projects were carried out and reviewed between August and November 2016 at nine urban public schools (3802 preschool and school-age children), based on work experiences of the course NU-2030. Childhood overweight and obesity prevalence and problems related to eating habits were studied as starting points. Regarding this method, were analyzed objectives, number, inner construction and sequence from sessions, participants number, materials/activities, barriers and facilitators, evaluation methods, goals and indicators, monitoring and results of the process.

Results:

Despite the reduced intervention time, some behavioral changes were observed in children. The usage of games promoted an active participation of the children, while the adaptation of the times in the sessions and the follow-up given allowed an appropriate implementation of the method.

Conclusions:

It is possible to apply this method to the school population; it is important to work on the barriers identified to involve all parties of the school environment.

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