School Nurses Obesity Management in Elementary School Children

양호교사(養護敎師)의 초등학생(初等學生)에 대한 비만관리(肥滿管理)

The purpose of this study is to find out problems in obesity management through survey and analysis of the actual conditions from the view of a elementary schools school-nurses and to establish fundamental data for efficient obesity management. The subjects for this study were 313 numbers of elementary school-nurses in Kyung-Sang-Pook-Do. The data were collected through mail questionaries from November 1 to November 30, 1997. The major findings in this survey were as follows: 49.8% of the school-nurses who responded in the survey were in their 30s. The average career was 7.3years. The average service duration in their present school was 2.3 years, 55.6% of them were serving at schools which have less than ten classes total 77.2% of them were serving rural areas, 79.6% of them were serving at schools with fewer than 100 obese students. The total obesity prevalence rate was 11.4%, 13.3% were girls, 9.3% were boys. The measurement of height and weight is performed once a year for all surveyed students (91.7%), but obese students were measured as much five times (51.1%). The rate of obesity management planning was 74.1%, however the rates of evaluation and role assignment were 41. 2%, and 24.3%. 79.6% of the surveyed schools have health education classes for obesity, the rate compared (8.0 periods per year) to the whole of health education (79.1 periods per year) is 10.1%. 99.9% of the schools had counseling rooms for obesity (combined with nursing rooms) but they were used. The roote of individual counseling was 84.3%. The frequency counseling was six times a year for about 15 minutes. Obesity counseling records were kept 93.6% of the time and individual information cards were kept 98.7% of the time. The frequency of parents counseling was 42.8% and the survey shows that the main problem here was insufficient counseling facilities. The frequency of dietary guidance and exercise therapy was 84.3% and the dietary instructor was usually the school nurse at 51.7%. The frequency of obesity student exercise was 1-2 times a week and more-than-10-minutes at a time. They skip rope during the morning self-study class. The number on problem of exercise guidance at 56.2% was students' non-cooperativeness. School-nurses, 87.9%, answered that obesity management at school is necessary and 86.9% mentioned the shortage of obesity related information in present physical exercise books. From the plural responses of executing the obesity management, there are many similar problems: lack of knowledge and non-cooperation in parents at 41.9%, is predominant followed by of knowledge and non-cooperation in the children. The third problem is the lack of funds and facilities.