Abstract:
Objective To evaluate the comprehensive intervention effects on children's overweight and obesity, and develop a healthy lifestyle for children.
Methods Four primary schools were chosen from Songjiang District of Shanghai with stratified cluster random sampling, in which three schools were assigned as the intervention groups, and the left one was the control group. A total of 1 067 children(833 in the intervention group, 234 in the control group)from 2 classes at grades 2 to 4 of each school took part in the intervention project which lasted for 1 year. All the subjects and their parents and teachers were invited to complete a questionnaire on obesity-related knowledge, attitudes, practice(KAP), and physical examinations were conducted to the participated students before and after the intervention project.
Results After the intervention, the obesity prevalence in the intervention group was lowered from 11.5% to 9.4%. The mean value of hemoglobin increased by 1.25 g/L in the intervention group. The score increment rates of obesity-related knowledge, attitudes, practice of primary school students(8.2%, 9.7%, 10.0%), parents(4.6%, 2.6%, 5.7%), and teachers(8.6%, 6.9%, 11.0%)in the intervention group were higher than those of the control group.
Conclusion Nutrition and health education and physical intervention have worked effectively to improve obesity control in primary school students, and a longer term of intervention is required for further effect evaluation.