Impact of Parental Support During Health Behavior Classes on Primary School Students' Awareness of Obesity

Abstract

Introduction: One of the most common disorders worldwide among school-age children is obesity. This paper aims to examine the impact of parent support during health behavior classes on the awareness level of obesity among Primary School students.

Methods: A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was conducted among 90 obese students. Students were divided into two groups with 45 students in each based on their BMI. A pretest was conducted on both groups by distributing the SPAN scale to both groups. After that, nursing interventions for three months included health behavior classes for both groups (group one with parent support & group two without parent support).

Results: The results indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the two groups in mean scores of, posttest and delayed posttest, (t (88) = 6.428, t (88) = 4.127, t (88) = 4.317, p = .001), respectively. The first group achieved a mean score of pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test of 45.66 (6.618); 51.45 (7.514); and 43.78 (5.678), respectively. The 2^nd group achieved a mean score of pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test 44.78.14 (6.515); 85.45 (8.54); and 86.44 (8.65), respectively.

Conclusion: Parent support during health behavior classes is effective in increasing awareness among obese students.