Document Type : Original Article
Authors
Department of Health Promotion and Education, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Healthy children are the foundation for a healthy and developing nation. Perceived
behavioral control (PBC), comprising control belief and perceived power, is a person’s perception of
the ease or difficulty of performing the behavior of interest. For facilitating regular physical activity and
regular healthy dietary practices among the adolescents, PBC is an important construct to develop
and implement appropriate interventions. The aim is to assess PBC to perform regular physical
activity and regular healthy dietary practices and measure their statistical relationship among the
school‑going adolescents in an urban area in West Bengal.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A school‑based cross‑sectional study was conducted among 251
adolescents aged 12–16 years after taking consent and assent for participation in the study. Data
were collected with self‑administered questionnaire on sociodemographic variables and the two
domains of PBC, i.e., control beliefs and perceived power, related to regular physical activity and
regular healthy dietary practices. Each PBC total score was calculated by multiplying control belief
score and perceived power score for each respondent. Partial correlation coefficient was calculated
between regular healthy dietary practices and regular physical activity.
RESULTS: Among the total 251 responses analyzed, 34.7% and 27.5% students belonged to age
group 14 and 15, respectively. It was observed that the mean (± standard deviation) score of PBC
regarding regular healthy dietary practices was 100.7 (±27.7) and for regular physical activity was
106.0 (±21.4). The correlation between PBC of regular healthy dietary practices and regular physical
activity was 0.421 and was statistically significant.
CONCLUSION: In case PBC score over any behavior is higher, behavioral intention and ultimately
chances of performing that particular behavior increases. Designing appropriate school‑based health
promotion strategies can lead to healthier children fostering regular healthy dietary practices and
regular physical activity in their homes and communities.
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