Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #99373

Ling Qian, MD, PhD, Center for Training and Evaluation, National Institute for Health Education,China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Building 12, District 1, Anhuaxili, Andingmenwai, Beijing, 100011, China, 86-10-6424-5767, qianlingzh@126.com, Maojin Cheng, MD, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College,Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 13 Hangkong Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430030, China, and Ian M. Newman, PhD, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, P. O. Box 880345, 114 Teachers College Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0345.

An educational intervention to control obesity, based on the six-principles of health-promoting schools is described and its effectiveness assessed. Two elementary schools in Wuhan, China were selected as intervention schools (I) and two as control schools(C) (N:I=885, C=488). Measures of height/weight, knowledge and attitudes about nutrition and physical exercise and behavior were recorded at baseline and at follow-up two years later. Effectiveness was based on changes in (1) students' knowledge, attitudes and behaviors and (2) prevalence of obesity and overweight. Significant reductions in overweight were noted for boys but not girls. For boys overweight rate in the intervention schools went from 13.89% at baseline to 15.54%. In the control schools the overweight rate went from 12.24% to 21.43%. Among girls the overweight rate in the intervention schools went from 5.19% to 8.87% and in the control schools from 11.69% to 12.96%. In all cases where student's weight changed, obesity to overweight to normal, weight changes occurred in the appropriate direction. Obese students moved to overweight and overweight students to normal. Students in the intervention schools reported significant improvements in measures of knowledge and attitudes about nutrition and physical exercise and behavior. Students in the control schools did not. The implications and the lessons of these findings for policy development and health education program development for more effectively preventing and controlling obesity are discussed.

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