Abstract:
The sufficient of health literacy can promoted obesity prevention behaviors in school-age children. This research was quasi-experimental, two groups pretest-posttest design. The objective aimed to examine the effects of the health literacy promoting program on obesity prevention behaviors and the body weight of school-age children with overnutrition. The samples included 40 school-age children with overnutrition for grades 4-6 in primary schools. They met the inclusion criterion and randomly assigned to the experimental (n=20) and control group (n=20). Data were collected from November 2022 to January 2023. The experimental group received the health literacy promoting program, which was developed following health literacy concept of Wachira Pengchan (2017). The program comprised of 6 steps: 1) Access to health information; 2) Understanding of health; 3) Interaction, interrogation and exchange of health information; 4) Behavioral decision-making; 5) Behavior practices; and 6) Further instruction to behavioral practices, while the control group received regularly teaching in school. Research instruments consisted of the obesity prevention behaviors questionnaire, which had a Cronbachs alpha of .80. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent t-test The results revealed that after receiving the program, the experimental group had the mean scores of obesity prevention behaviors significantly higher than those in the control group (t 38= 6.81, p<.001 and t38=2.12, p=.04 respectively). And the mean difference in the body weight were not differences. The results suggest that nurses and caregivers of school-age children could apply the health literacy promotion program to encourage appropriate dietary and physical activity behaviors for school-age children.