Health Status and Current Context Supporting Health Promotion amongst Overweight School-Children in Primary Schools in Southern Thailand

Abstract

This study aimed to explore health status of overweight school-children and investigate current context supporting health promotion among overweight school-children in primary school southern Thailand. Purposive sampling was employed to select the participants and their criteria were (1) overweight school-children, (2) overweight school-children’s parents, (3) school personals, (4) community members, and (5) willing to participate in the study. The total number of participants participated in this study was 327. Student physical examinations, questionnaires, focus groups and participant observations were employed for data collection. Descriptive statistic and thematic analysis were used to analyze the data. It revealed that the majority of overweight school-children participating in this study was girl (54.48%), studying in elementary school (grade 4-6) (59.96%) and having good health (81.16%). Common ill conditions and health issues among this group were allergy, asthma, muscular weakness, dental caries and benign acanthosis nigricans. But they tended to have good emotional intelligence and performed good academic achievement. However, they showed inefficient agility performance. The current context sup porting health promotion among overweight school-children was not quite effective. For instance, there was no physical educators at some school. There had no suitable places for physical activity. Health promotion programmes for this particular group were not constantly active. Thus, the investigators suggested that all relevant sectors in the locality should together organize the practical guideline to develop the proper health promotion programmes for overweight school-children that suit the family, school and community contexts.