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.com
Volume 8
Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy
ISSN: 2165-7904
Childhood Obesity 2018
March 15-16, 2018
March 15-16, 2018 | Barcelona, Spain
11
th
International Conference on
Childhood Obesity and Nutrition
School-based intervention to enable school children to act as change agents on weight, physical
activity and diet of their mothers
Susantha Indrawansa
The Foundation for Health Promotion, Sri Lanka
Background &Aim:
School health promotion has been shown to improve the lifestyle of students, but it remains unclear
whether school-based programs can influence family health. We developed an innovative program that enables school children
to act as change agents in promoting healthy lifestyles of their mothers. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of
the child-initiated intervention on weight, physical activity and dietary habit of their mothers.
Methods:
A 12-month cluster randomized trial was conducted, with school as a cluster. Participants were mothers with grade
eight students, aged around 13 years, of 20 schools in Homagama, Sri Lanka. Students of the intervention group were trained
by facilitators to acquire the ability to assess non communicable disease risk factors in their homes and take action to address
them, whereas those of the comparison group received no intervention. Body weight, step count and lifestyle of their mothers
were assessed at baseline and post-intervention. Multi-level multivariable linear regression and logistic regression were used to
assess the effects of intervention on continuous and binary outcomes, respectively.
Results:
Of 308 study participants, 261 completed the final assessment at 12 month. There was a significantly greater decrease
of weight and increase of physical activity in the intervention group. The mean (95% confidence interval) difference comparing
the intervention group with the control group was −2.49 (−3.38 to −1.60) kg for weight and −0.99 (−1.40 to −0.58) kg/m
2
for body mass index. The intervention group had a 3.25 (95% confidence interval 1.87–5.62) times higher odds of engaging
in adequate physical activity than the control group, and the former showed a greater number of steps than the latter after
intervention. The intervention group showed a greater reduction of household purchase of biscuits and ice cream.
Conclusions:
A program to motivate students to act as change agents of family’s lifestyle was effective in decreasing weight and
increasing physical activity of their mothers.
Biography
Susantha Indrawansa has completed Diploma in Health Promotion at Rajarata University and Diploma in Human Resource Management at Ceylinco Business
School. He has 21 years of experience on community based intervention from 1996. Currently, he is Executive Director of The Foundation for Health Promotion.
He has done several researches such as cardiovascular health research in developing countries at Center for Chronic Disease Control and; baseline and end
line survey on weight reduction programme in Homagam conducted at National Center for Global Health and Medicine. He has several publications and attended
various international conferences such as: Joint International Tropical Medicine meeting 2012 in Thailand and; Joint International Tropical Medicine meeting 2013
in Thailand.
susanthaindrawansa@yahoo.comSusantha Indrawansa, J Obes Weight Loss Ther 2018, Volume 8
DOI: 10.4172/2165-7904-C1-057