Effectiveness of obesity prevention program for secondary school students

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the obesity prevention program developed for secondary school students. Method: The study was conducted with a total of 116 students, 58 in the intervention group and 58 the control group. A training program to prevent obesity, including eating attitudes, self-efficacy and obesity awareness concepts, was applied to the intervention group. The data were collected before the intervention, at the 6th, 12th, and 15th months after the education, and analyzed using the repetead measures MANOVA, one way repetead measures ANOVA. In the evaluation of the data, multiple variance analysis, Bonferroni adjusted paired t test and multi-eyed chi-square test. Results: While there was no statistically significant difference between the BMI classification rates of children in the intervention group (p=0.991), a statistically significant difference was found between the 1st month measurements and the 15th month measurements of the students in the control group (p<0.05). It was determined that there was no statistically significant difference between the total score averages of eating behavior questionnaire in terms of group, time and group-time interaction (p˃0.05). While there was no statistically significant difference between the total score averages of Self-Efficacy Scale in Secondary School Children in terms of group and time interaction, a statistically significant difference was found in group-time interaction (p<0.05). It was found that there was no statistically significant difference between the total mean scores of the Obesity Awareness Scale in terms of group interaction, but there was a statistically significant difference in terms of time and group-time interaction (p<0.05). Conclusion: It has been determined that the education developed for obesity prevention is not effective in the prevention of obesity. It is suggested that the family members should also be added to education.