School-based Obesity Prevention and Management Programs as Perceived and Experienced by Elementary School Health Teachers

초등보건교사의 학교기반 아동비만 예방관리사업에 대한 인식과 경험

Purpose: Elementary schools are regarded as the best community setting for implementing obesity prevention programs and health teachers (HTs) are the main health professionals who can provide obesity prevention services. However, there is insufficient information on the actual conditions of school-based obesity prevention/ management programs in Korean elementary schools. The purpose of the study was to investigate the actual conditions of school-based obesity prevention/management programs, perceived and experienced by elementary school HTs, which may provide basic data for developing effective and sustainable programs for early childhood. We investigated (1) HTs' ratings on the program's importance, the confidence in the program's implementation, and the factors associated with the program's success (2), the correlates of the importance and confidence levels (3), the program's effectiveness and the factors associated with its sustainability, which were evaluated by HTs, and (4) the correlates of the effectiveness levels. Methods: The participants, 147 HTs working for elementary schools in Seoul were asked to fill out self-administrated questionnaires through mail. Results: The participants' rate on the program's importance was 7.1 on average (0~10 scale) and that on the confidence in the program's implementation was 6.2 (0~10 scale). Moreover, > 25% of the participants reported student and parent participation as a factor associated with the program's success. Of the total participants, 45.6% reported they had actually experienced the program, giving 4.8 points (0~10 scale), on average, in the evaluation of the program's effectiveness and > 22.0% of the participants regarded student and parent participation as a factor associated with the program's sustainability. The HTs' confidence in the program's implementation was a strong correlate of the effectiveness evaluated by HTs. Conclusion: School-based obesity prevention/management programs tend to be highly prioritized by HTs in elementary schools. To implement an effective obesity program in elementary schools, educational support for HTs is needed in order to enhance their confidence levels on the program's implementation.