Investigation of educational intervention based on Theory of Planned Behavior on breakfast consumption among middle school students of Qom City in 2012

نویسندگان

1 Department of Public Health, School of Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences,

2 Department of Public Health, School of Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Department of Public Health, School of Health, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord

3 Department of Public Health, Research Deputy, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom

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5 Department of Public Health, School of Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran,

6 Department of Public Health, School of Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences,

7 Department of Public Health, School of Health, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran

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9

doi
چکیده

Background: Eating breakfast is crucial for adolescents to be healthy. It also improvesstudents’ capacity of learning and doing school homework. Although healthy habits such aseating breakfast, weight control, and regular sleep increase the lifespan in adults, the effects ofhealthy habits on school‑age children have not been studied much. The present study aimed atinvestigating the impact of an educational program based on Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)on eating breakfast among middle school students. Materials and Methods: This interventionalstudy was conducted on sixth‑grade students in Qom City during the academic year 2012–2013.First, 97 students were randomly assigned to the experimental group and 97 other studentswere assigned to the control group. Then, a questionnaire was developed on eating breakfastby the researchers according to the TPB. A pilot study was conducted to assess the reliabilityof the questionnaire. To assess the validity of the questionnaire, advice by a panel of expertswas sought. To carry out a pre‑test, both groups answered the questions. After analyzing thepre‑test results, the required content was developed for the experimental group. Educationalmethods included delivering speech, discussion groups, pamphlets, and posters. The requirededucational content was provided for students during five sessions and for parents in one session.To determine the effect of educational intervention, a post‑test study was carried out 2 monthsafter the intervention. Collected data were analyzed using independent t‑test, χ,[2] and repeatedmeasures. Results: In the experimental group, 36.7% of students were eating breakfast at least ina day of a week, before educational intervention. After implementation of the educational program,only 32.7% of them were continuing their past habit. There was a significant difference between themean scores of attitudes, perceived behavioral control, intention, and practice of eating breakfast inthe experimental and control groups (P < 0.05), while there was no significant difference betweenthe mean scores of subjective norms afterimplementing the educational program in bothgroups (P < 0.26). Conclusion: Using the TPBimproved students’ intentions and behaviorof eating breakfast. Thus, it seems necessaryto consider all effective environmental factorson the subjective norms in the educationof healthy eating behaviors or improvingbreakfast‑eating practice among students.