. Jaun Z. Rizvi; . Pawan Kumar; . Muralidhar M. Kulkarni; . Asha Kamath
Volume 12, Issue 11 , December 2022, , Pages 1-8
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Obesity has been identified as a serious global health concern whose prevalencedoubles almost every 10 years. Health education regarding physical activity and healthy diet ...
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BACKGROUND: Obesity has been identified as a serious global health concern whose prevalencedoubles almost every 10 years. Health education regarding physical activity and healthy diet impartedto adolescents could prove to be fruitful in reducing obesity‑risk. Objectives of this study were toevaluate the effect of health education intervention on knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP)regarding obesity‑risk reduction and to estimate the postinterventional change in body massindex (BMI) and total body fat (%) among adolescent school children in South India.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Stratified cluster randomized controlled trial was carried out among398 students recruited at baseline including 206 and 192 participants in intervention and controlgroup respectively selected through simple random sampling from eligible government aided andprivate schools to assess KAP regarding physical activity and diet using pretested and validatedquestionnaire by making three school visits 6 months apart. Anthropometric measurements wererecorded in first and third visit only, while health education intervention was given in first visit tointervention and third visit to control group after taking their responses on the questionnaire. Datawere entered and analyzed using SPSS version 15.RESULTS: Overall dropout rate was 13.5% with dropout in intervention and control group being12.6% and 14.5% respectively, making 180 participants in intervention and 164 in control groupavailable for analysis. Mean physical activity KAP score improved significantly from 16.19 ± 4.61to 19.46 ± 10.07 in intervention group. Mean dietary KAP score also improved significantly from21.38 ± 4.07 to 23.43 ± 4.53 in intervention group (p < 0.001). Mean BMI decreased significantlywithin intervention group (p < 0.001) as compared to control group (p = 0.908). Based on cut‑off levelfor total body fat (%) to categorize obesity‑risk among participants, statistically significant decline inproportions from 26.1% to 13.3% was observed in intervention group (p < 0.001).CONCLUSION: Results depicted better KAP in intervention group than control group in all the threevisits while it improved significantly within both groups. Hence, the health education was found tobe effective in improving the overall KAP regarding modifiable risk factors of obesity among thestudy participants. Further studies to screen the adolescents for obesity‑risk and successive healtheducation sessions must be carried within schools in order to bring about change in knowledge,attitude, and practices regarding obesity‑risk.
