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An Intervention Programme Among Overweight Primary School Children
Red: Types of food that should be avoided
High in calorie 381 kcal Yellow:
Types of food that should be taken moderately The calorie value ranging from 83-381 kcal
Green: Types of food that should be consumed more
Low in calorie 83 kcal This system was also introduced to the school canteen operators. They were advised
to label the food categories according to the system. Subjects were also given a log book to record their dietary intake for the past 24 hours 24 hour diet recall and
physical activities for the past two weeks.
3.6.3 Physical Activities
Subjects and teachers in the intervention school were introduced to regular aerobic exercise and physical activities. The regular aerobic exercise was held on almost
every co-curriculum day which was on the second and fourth Saturday of every month. The aerobic session was conducted by trained healthcare personnel. The
subjects were also asked to exercise at home and to record every activity that they have done, into their log book.
Regular programmes were done at interval of three months each, which comprised of breathing exercises, aerobic exercises and treasure hunts. At the end of the study
period, a telematch was done between the intervention and the control schools.
3.6.4 IncentivesReward Systems
The incentive or reward system was produced to ensure the subjects were kept motivated all the time.
3.7 Variables Table 1. Variables
Variable Operational Definition
Scale of measurement
At risk of overweight
and obese 85
th
to less than the 95
th
percentile according to NCHS chart
Weight – kg Height – cm
Overweight and obese
Body weight measurement exceeding 95
th
percentile according to NCHS chart Weight – kg
Height – cm Physical
Activity Activity level
Vigorous activity 15 minutes Moderate activity 30 minutes
Mild activity 60 minutes Minutes
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An Intervention Programme Among Overweight Primary School Children
Variable Operational Definition
Scale of measurement
Dietary Intake Frequency of eating fast food, eating out
Frequency
Family factors Family history of obesity
Eating habit Physical activity habit
No. of family members, height
and weight, frequency and
duration
Psychological factors
Self image and social stigma Emotional feeling
Questionnaires Motivational
aspects and incentives
Feeling good about self Reward
Questionnaires Stepper to school
and T shirts
3.8 Statistical Analysis
Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS social statistics package Version 11.5.
3.9 Benefit of the Study
1. Improve the quality of life and boost the child’s self esteem.
2. Reduce complications due to the problems associated with overweight.
3. Implement the programme to other school.
3.10 Potential Utilisation of Research
This study hopes to identify the factors leading to the development of overweight and obesity among the school children and develop a suitable interventional programme
which hopefully can be applied to other overweight and obese schoolchildren in Malaysia.
Recommendations
1. It is recommended that the state education department should organise this
interventional programme in school in the near future. 2.
It is recommended that more health topics could be included into the school syllabus.
3. It is recommended that good collaborations could be established between
the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education.
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4.0 RESULTS
4.1 Socio-demographic Data
In the first part of the study, 924 students were assessed, with 510 students coming from intervention school and 414 students coming from control school. Among these
students, 193 20.9 students were overweight and obese Table 2. However, only 79.3 of these overweight and obese groups were given consent by their parents
to join the programme.
Table 2. Cross sectional summary School
Number of students
Overweight or obese
Number of students given
consent
Intervention 510
101 19.8 70 69.0
Control
414 92 22.2
83 90.0
Total 924
193 20.9 153 79.3
Table 3 below shows the numbers of subject from baseline bl, pi-1pi-1, and post intervention 2 pi-2. There was a decrease in total subjects in pi-1, and 2, both in
intervention and control school. A decrease of 0.4 and 3.1 in intervention school and 8 and 2.9 in control school during pi-1 and 2 were observed.
Table 3. Number of subjects at bl bl, pi-1 pi-1 and pi-2 pi-2 School
bl pi-1
pi-2
Intervention school 70 13.7
68 13.3 54 10.6
Control school 83 20.0
50 12.0 71 17.1
The socio-demographic characteristics of the study subjects are described in Table 4. Total subjects were 70 students from intervention school and 83 students
from control school. Most of the study samples were 11 years old, 40 students from intervention school, and 60 students from control school. Both schools were
predominantly Malay. Based on the BMI calculated, both schools have similar percentage of overweight students, intervention group 60 and control group
57.8.
