فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

BACKGROUND: Healthy children are the foundation for a healthy and developing nation. Perceivedbehavioral control (PBC), comprising control belief and perceived power, is a person’s perception ofthe ease or difficulty of performing the behavior of interest. For facilitating regular physical activity andregular healthy dietary practices among the adolescents, PBC is an important construct to developand implement appropriate interventions. The aim is to assess PBC to perform regular physicalactivity and regular healthy dietary practices and measure their statistical relationship among theschool‑going adolescents in an urban area in West Bengal.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A school‑based cross‑sectional study was conducted among 251adolescents aged 12–16 years after taking consent and assent for participation in the study. Datawere collected with self‑administered questionnaire on sociodemographic variables and the twodomains of PBC, i.e., control beliefs and perceived power, related to regular physical activity andregular healthy dietary practices. Each PBC total score was calculated by multiplying control beliefscore and perceived power score for each respondent. Partial correlation coefficient was calculatedbetween regular healthy dietary practices and regular physical activity.RESULTS: Among the total 251 responses analyzed, 34.7% and 27.5% students belonged to agegroup 14 and 15, respectively. It was observed that the mean (± standard deviation) score of PBCregarding regular healthy dietary practices was 100.7 (±27.7) and for regular physical activity was106.0 (±21.4). The correlation between PBC of regular healthy dietary practices and regular physicalactivity was 0.421 and was statistically significant.CONCLUSION: In case PBC score over any behavior is higher, behavioral intention and ultimatelychances of performing that particular behavior increases. Designing appropriate school‑based healthpromotion strategies can lead to healthier children fostering regular healthy dietary practices andregular physical activity in their homes and communities.