Lifestyle

Weight Perception and Weight Control Behavior among Florida High School Students

An Open Access article published in the Health Behavior and Policy Review Journal.
The full article is available as a PDF download.

Authors:

Deana A. Hildebrand, PhD, RD
Jeremy Humphrey, MS
Lindsi Lemons, MPH

Objective:

Actions adopted by adolescents to control their weight are motivated by their body weight perception. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between body weight perception and weight control behavior among Florida public high school students.

Methods:

We analyzed data from the 2015 Florida Youth Risk Behavior Survey (N = 3798). We used chi-square test to detect group differences among survey respondents and multivariate logistic regression to assess the association between weight perception and weight control behavior.

Results:

Most survey respondents adopted healthy actions such as exercise and diet, 75.3% and 55.0%, respectively, and few used unhealthy ones as weight control means, such as fasting, use of diet products, and purging, 15.6%, 7.3%, and 6.5% respectively. Compared to respondents who considered themselves as having the right weight, there were higher odds of engaging in healthy activities only in respondents who considered themselves as being overweight while there were higher odds of engaging in unhealthy actions in respondents perceiving themselves as underweight and in those viewing themselves as overweight.

Conclusions:

High school health education courses should include modules educating students on the importance of having accurate knowledge about body weight and adopting a healthy weight control behavior.

Source: Health Behavior and Policy Review, Volume 9, Number 2, March 2022, pp. 815-827(13)
Publisher: Paris Scholar Publishing Ltd.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14485/HBPR.9.2.8

2022-04-11T11:30:35-06:00April 11th, 2022|Health Policy, Lifestyle, School Health|

Effective Elements of School-based Provision for the Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles: A European Delphi Study

An Open Access article published in the Health Behavior and Policy Review Journal.
The full article is available as a PDF download.

Authors:

Richard Bailey, PhD
Iva Glibo, MSc
Claude Scheuer, PhD Twitter

Objective:

Schools can serve as settings for promoting their student health, although it is necessary to identify the key elements of provision to leverage change. This study’s objective was to develop a Europe-based list of the elements of learning and health support systems judged by a group of experts to be most effective in influencing school student healthy lifestyles education.

Methods:

A 3-stage Delphi study involving a group of 18 Europe-based subject specialists was used to articulate shared expert opinions on the main research question: what are the most effective elements of learning and health support systems influencing school students’ healthy lifestyles education? Over 3 rounds of data-gathering, experts were asked to assess the effectiveness of 25 specific elements.

Results:

The 3 rounds resulted in the following ranked list: Physical Education (PE), Staff Professional Development, Healthy School Policies, Active Recess, Family & Community Engagement, Healthy Eating, Physical Activity in Classroom Lessons, and Active Transport.

Conclusions:

Cautious of overly generalizing from the results, we suggest the findings offer useful information for evidence-based programs, as well as future research that explores the necessary components of health promotion in schools.

Source: Health Behavior and Policy Review, Volume 8, Number 6, November 2021, pp. 546-557(12)
Publisher: Paris Scholar Publishing Ltd.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14485/HBPR.8.6.5

2021-12-30T21:35:45-07:00December 30th, 2021|Lifestyle, School Health|
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