A school-based randomized controlled trial to improve physical activity among Iranian high school girls

Abstract

BackgroundPhysical activity (PA) rates decline precipitously during the high school years and are consistently lower among adolescent girls than adolescent boys. Due to cultural barriers, this problem might be exacerbated in female Iranian adolescents. However, little intervention research has been conducted to try to increase PA participation rates with this population. Because PA interventions in schools have the potential to reach many children and adolescents, this study reports on PA intervention research conducted in all-female Iranian high schools.MethodsA randomized controlled trial was conducted to examine the effects of two six-month tailored interventions on potential determinants of PA and PA behavior. Students (N = 161) were randomly allocated to one of three conditions: an intervention based on Pender's Health Promotion model (HP), an intervention based on an integration of the health promotion model and selected constructs from the Transtheoretical model (THP), and a control group (CON). Measures were administered prior to the intervention, at post-intervention and at a six-month follow-up.ResultsRepeated measure ANOVAs showed a significant interaction between group and time for perceived benefits, self efficacy, interpersonal norms, social support, behavioral processes, and PA behavior, indicating that both intervention groups significantly improved across the 24-week intervention, whereas the control group did not. Participants in the THP group showed greater use of counter conditioning and stimulus control at post-intervention and at follow-up. While there were no significant differences in PA between the HP and CON groups at follow-up, a significant difference was still found between the THP and the CON group.ConclusionThis study provides the first evidence of the effectiveness of a PA intervention based on Pender's HP model combined with selected aspects of the TTM on potential determinants to increase PA among Iranian high school girls.

A model-based educational intervention to increase physical activity among Iranian adolescents

“…Em estudo semelhante, a inclusão de apenas adolescentes do estágio de preparação foi considerada uma limitação 28 . Além disso, nem todos os componentes do MPS foram calculados e a intervenção foi aplicada apenas com meninas.…”

“…Muitos estudos mostraram que utilizar os EDM para classificar os participantes pode aprimorar as intervenções [28][29][30] . Os achados deste estudo apoia a aplicação de EDM nesta população, visto que a maioria dos componentes do MPS para AF diferenciam-se entre os estágios antes e depois da intervenção, e as mudanças foram na direção prevista pela teoria.…”

“…Contudo, parece que intervenções focadas na influência das relações interpessoais precisam de mais tempo e também precisam ser modificadas para atingir as características culturais e individuais especiais das pessoas. Isso é consistente com o estudo de Taymoori et al 28 .…”

Effectiveness of preventive school-based obesity interventions in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review

“…Overall, 13 interventions involved school staff, communities, parents, children, and/or families and are referred to as multicomponent interventions in the remainder of this review. Four of the 25 interventions provided an individual counseling component (44)(45)(46)(47).…”

“…Four studies were diet-only interventions (48-51), 10 studies were PA-only interventions (47,(52)(53)(54)(55)(56)(57)(58)(59)(60)(61), and 11 studies involved both diet and PA interventions (referred to as combined interventions in this review) (44)(45)(46)(62)(63)(64)(65)(66)(67)(68)(69)(70)(71)(72). Diet-only interventions mainly used nutrition education promoting healthy diets as a key intervention strategy (48,49,51); one study was a breakfast program (50).…”