| Summary: | 碩士 === 臺北醫學大學 === 公共衛生學研究所 === 95 === In 1995, the World Health Organization proposed the concept of Health Promoting Schools, which aimed at creating and maintaining a healthy learning environment to promote the physical, emotional, and social well-being of staff and students. In Taiwan, the ‘health promoting school’ program collaborated by Department of Health and Ministry of Education with the six areas in line with WHO was initiated in 2003. However, the effects of the administration of health promoting schools, especially with the focus on nutrition, have not been well evaluated.
This cross-sectional study aimed at investigating the association between the intervention of health promoting school programs and the nutrition knowledge and diet behaviors among students and teachers in elementary schools. A total of 525 students and 283 teachers were recruited in 2007 from 3 types of schools, including (1) a health promoting school focusing on nutrition (school A), (2) a health promoting school not focusing on nutrition (school B) and (3) a non-health promoting school (school C). A self-reported questionnaire was applied to collect information on nutrition knowledge, diet behavior and the consumption frequency of food items among students and teachers. It was found in this study that independent of socio-demographic variables, health status and the interests in nutrition knowledge, there was no statistically significant difference between health promoting school programs (i.e., school A & school C) and nutrition knowledge and diet behaviors for both students and teachers. Furthermore, after controlling for all other variables, the students and teachers in school A consumed more junk food (β=1.25;95%CI:0.02,2.49) and oily food (β=1.07;95%CI:0.21,1.93), repectively. In addition, the interests in nutrition knowledge and body weight were significantly associated with diet behaviors of students and teachers.
In the future, the design of a more effective program to promote health promoting schools, especially with the focus on elevating the interests in nutrition knowledge among teachers and students, might help modification towards healthier diet behaviors in elementary schools. In addition, incorporating education of body size in schools might avoid improper diet behaviors due to inappropriate body image. It might also be critical to obtain parents’ involvements because children who had dinner made by their parents reported better diet behaviors. Finally, it indeed takes time for health education to change one’s knowledge and behaviors. Although this study was unable to observe significant impact on the administration of health promoting schools, followed-up studies are in need to keep monitoring the long-term effects of health promoting schools.
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