Background: Multicomponent interventions that include both school and family or community involvements have the
potential to cause significant changes in the levels of health in adolescents. To this end, KOICA and Yonsei Global Health
Center implemented a school-based health promotion program from 2015 to 2016 in Northern Lima and Callao, Peru.
The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of a school-based health promotion intervention on the health behaviors
of school adolescents in Peru.
Methods: Health behaviors were measured using a standard self-administered questionnaire before and after the in-
troduction of a school-based health promotion intervention in 2014 and 2016. The intervention was executed in secondary
schools, specifically two schools from Lima and two from Callao, from April 2015 to November 2016. Two schools (one
from each area) were selected as control schools. The interventions included health education, screening, and psycho-
logical counseling of vulnerable individuals as well as education for teachers and workshops with parents.
Results: Descriptive statistics, chi-square test results, and logistic regression values were computed. Sample sizes were
332 and 255 in 2014 and 933 and 599 in 2016 in the intervention and control schools, respectively. Logistic regression
analysis revealed significant improvement in the consumption of vegetables and in depression in the intervention
schools. Suicide attempts, television-watching, video game use, Internet use, consumption of chips and sugary drinks,
and being in fights did not decrease in the intervention group but did increase in the control group. Thus, the intervention
might have prevented the worsening of these behaviors in the intervention schools.
Conclusion: The intervention had a positive effect on vegetable consumption and feeling depressed as well as on prevent-
ing the increase in sedentary behaviors, fighting, and suicide attempts.
|
