Promotion of physical activity of adolescents by skill-based health education
Abstract
Purpose
Insufficient physical activity leads to an increase in chronic diseases. Skills-based health education methods are supposed to be more successful than traditional methods to promote healthy behaviors. Skills-based health education is an approach to create healthy lifestyles and skills using participatory methods. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of skill-based education method on physical activities of female adolescents.
Design/methodology/approach
This was an experimental study on 80 female public high school students aged 12-14 years old in Tehran. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: experimental group of 40 girls who were educated using “Skills-based education method,” and control group of 40 girls who were educated by lecture as a routine educational method for health promotion. Data were collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire to assess physical activity-related knowledge, attitudes and behavior. Data were gathered three times; before, immediately after (Phase 1) and two months after educational intervention (Phase 2). Data analysis was performed using SPSS 20.
Findings
Intra-group comparison demonstrated that both educational methods can increase knowledge, attitude and behavior of the students after intervention comparing to before intervention (RMANOVA; p<0.05). However, the comparison between groups demonstrated a significant higher increase of knowledge (t-test; p<0.01 and p<0.0; phase 1 and 2, respectively), and behavior (t-test; p<0.01 and p=0.002; phase 1 and 2, respectively) but not attitude (p=0.083 and p=0.125, phase 1 and 2, respectively) among the students participated in the experimental “skilled based health education” group rather than the control “lecture” group.
Originality/value
Skill-based health education comparing to routine lecture-based education creates deep and long lasting knowledge and behavior and is highly recommended for promoting physical activity and other health-related knowledge and among adolescents.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This is the report of the master thesis of Zeinab Aarabi for fulfillment of Midwifery MSc Degree. This research was approved by Ethical Committee of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences with the code of 1392-1-86-11770-14343 and with research grant provided by the SBMU university number and recorded in Iranian Registry of Clinical Trial (No. IRCT201311278801N6). The authors appreciate deputy of research of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences for support of this project. This paper is a report of the MSc thesis of the first author.
Citation
Simbar, M., Aarabi, Z., Keshavarz, Z., Ramezani-Tehrani, F. and Baghestani, A.R. (2017), "Promotion of physical activity of adolescents by skill-based health education", Health Education, Vol. 117 No. 2, pp. 207-214. https://doi.org/10.1108/HE-09-2016-0037
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited