ScholarWorks@동국대학교

초록

Purpose: Elementary schools are regarded as the best community setting for implementing obesity preventionprograms and health teachers (HTs) are the main health professionals who can provide obesity preventionservices. 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 theactual conditions of school-based obesity prevention/management programs, perceived and experienced by elementaryschool HTs, which may provide basic data for developing effective and sustainable programs for earlychildhood. 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 confidencelevels (3), the program’s effectiveness and the factors associated with its sustainability, which were evaluatedby 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-administratedquestionnaires through mail. Results: The participants’ rate on the program’s importance was 7.1 on average (0~10 scale) and that on the confidencein the program’s implementation was 6.2 (0~10 scale). Moreover, > 25% of the participants reported studentand 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 evaluationof the program’s effectiveness and > 22.0% of the participants regarded student and parent participation as afactor associated with the program’s sustainability. The HTs' confidence in the program’s implementation wasa strong correlate of the effectiveness evaluated by HTs. Conclusion: School-based obesity prevention/management programs tend to be highly prioritized by HTs in elementaryschools. To implement an effective obesity program in elementary schools, educational support for HTsis needed in order to enhance their confidence levels on the program’s implementation.

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