 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Ping Hu Johnson, MD, PhD, CHES, Health, Physical Education and Sports Science, Kennesaw State University, 1000 Chastain Road, Kennesaw, GA 30144, 770-499-3149, pjohnso2@kennesaw.edu, Roy D. Johnson, PhD, Department of Computer Information Systems, Georgia State University, P. O. Box 4015, Atlanta, GA 30302, and Xuenong Xin, MD, Anhui Provincial Hospital, 17 LuJiang Road, Hefei, China.
Studies have proven that effective school health education has a positive impact on student health behaviors in the US. Little is know about the effect of Chinese school health education on student health behaviors. To examine the effect of school health education in China, a written questionnaire was administered to 1917 students enrolled in three large universities in China. Of the 1719 returned questionnaires (response rate: 89.7%), 1504 were usable. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests.
It was found that compared to their counterparts, respondents who had taken health class since elementary school were significantly less likely to have ridden in a car driven by someone who had drunk alcohol (Chi-square=15.63, p<0.001) and a binge drink episode (Chi-square=30.60, p<.0001) in the past month, started smoking cigarettes before age 15 (Chi-square=14.25, p<0.05), used any illegal drugs (Chi-square=9.69, p<0.001), had sexual intercourse (Chi-square=16. 90, p<0.001), and been diagnosed with an STD (13.81, p<0.001); and were significantly more likely to have walked/biked in the past week (Chi-square=19.19, p<0.001) and exercised moderately for more days in the past month (Chi-square=15.22, p<0.05). However, no significant differences were noted between those who had health course and those who had not regarding self-reported health status, nutrition, sleeping, stress, safety, safer sex, alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use behaviors.
School health education in China had a positive impact on several health behaviors, but had little influence on many other health behaviors. Designing and delivering effective and comprehensive school health education programs in China are imperative.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: School Health, International
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.