engleski

Together for better health! – Overview of the ongoing information based physical activity and nutritional intervention in school setting

Introduction. Scientific studies showed a high prevalence of physical inactivity among children and adults in Croatia and Slovenia (WHO, 2008). With the aim of improving physical activity in these populations, we created and implemented an information based physical activity and nutritional intervention in school setting. Intervention was the joint project of the three institutions: Institute of Public Health Međimurska Zupanija, Institute of Public Health Murska Sobota, and University of Zagreb, Faculty of Kinesiology. Activities undertaken. The intervention lasted for 16 weeks and encompassed 10 schools (5 elementary schools in Croatia and 5 in Slovenia). During the first week, the students attending the above mentioned schools, their teachers, and parents filled out questionnaire regarding physical activity and nutritional habits, and their anthropometric measures were taken. In addition, the teachers and parents attended the introductory lecture on health benefits of physical activity and healthy nutrition. Within each of the following 15 weeks, we provided all participants with 3 leaflets containing information on: 1) health-enhancing physical activity, 2) healthy nutrition, and 3) cooking tips and recipes.Immediately after the last week of the intervention, we reapplied the questionnaires and repeated the anthropometric measurements in order to evaluate the short-term effects. We plan to determine long-term effects by conducting 6 month follow up examination. The students from another 10 schools, as well as their teachers and parents were also included in evaluation as control group. Results and Conclusion. Since this is an ongoing project, preliminary results and conclusions will be presented on the conference venue. References: World Health Organization (WHO). Ineqalities in Young People's Health: Health Behaviour in School-aged Children International Report From the 2005/2006 Survey. Copenhagen, Denmark: WHO Regional Office for Europe ; 2008.

information based physical activity and nutritional intervention; children; parents; teachers

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