Rasyidah G, Wafa S W
School of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia.
Heliyon. 2020 Jun 9;6(6):e04059. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04059. eCollection 2020 Jun.
There is evidence suggesting that the school environment does have prominent contributions to the rise of childhood obesity.
The objective of this study was to assess the school environment by interviewing the teachers and compare the school environment score between rural and urban schools in Terengganu, Malaysia.
Thirty-two teachers from 16 primary schools in Terengganu were interviewed using a set of validated Malay version "School Environmental Mapping" questionnaire. A total of 76 items consisting of four domains of school environment factor: physical (what is available) with 41 items; economic (what the costs are) with nine items; political (what the rules are) with nine items; and socio-cultural (what the attitudes and beliefs are) with 17 items. Every item was questioned using an initial closed question followed by an open question when the criteria were not met or need further information regarding those particular items.
The present study revealed that the school environment of school in state of Terengganu is still low and not satisfied. Based on the schoolteacher's information and observation, there are significant barriers to promoting healthy eating and physical activity at school e.g. limited financial and budget allocation; lack of school facilities; lack of manpower to organise and monitor the programme; lack of participation and cooperation from parents; and no enforcement and serious action from authorized personnel on street hawkers near the school. This is reflected by the score achieved for 16 schools in Terengganu was only 63.05%. The political environment indicated the highest score among the domains, which was 77.78%, whereas, the lowest score was an economic environment (50.00%). Upon comparing between the urban and rural areas, the present study reported that there was a significant difference between school settings (p < 0.001) for an overall school environment, in which the rural areas had a significantly higher score than urban counterparts (64.86% vs 59.34%, p < 0.001). For each domain of the school environment, the findings showed that only two domains (physical and political environment) were significantly different between school settings.
This study revealed that the level of a healthy school environment among schools in both settings is still not satisfied. Addressing the obesogenic elements of school environments is one of the strategies in prevention since the school environments exert a great influence on children's behaviour.
有证据表明学校环境对儿童肥胖率的上升确实有显著影响。
本研究的目的是通过采访教师来评估学校环境，并比较马来西亚登嘉楼农村和城市学校的学校环境得分。
使用一套经过验证的马来语版“学校环境映射”问卷对登嘉楼16所小学的32名教师进行了访谈。共有76个项目，由学校环境因素的四个领域组成：物质环境（现有资源），包含41个项目；经济环境（成本情况），包含9个项目；政策环境（规章制度），包含9个项目；社会文化环境（态度和信念），包含17个项目。每个项目首先通过一个封闭式问题进行询问，当标准未得到满足或需要关于这些特定项目的进一步信息时，接着会提出一个开放式问题。
本研究表明，登嘉楼州学校的学校环境仍然较差且不尽人意。根据教师提供的信息和观察结果，在学校推广健康饮食和体育活动存在重大障碍，例如财政和预算分配有限；学校设施匮乏；缺乏组织和监督该计划的人力；家长缺乏参与和合作；以及学校附近街头小贩未得到授权人员的执法和严肃处理。这体现在登嘉楼16所学校的得分仅为63.05%。政策环境在各个领域中得分最高，为77.78%，而得分最低的是经济环境（50.00%）。在比较城乡地区时，本研究报告称，整体学校环境在学校环境设置方面存在显著差异（p < 0.001），其中农村地区的得分显著高于城市地区（64.86%对59.34%，p < 0.001）。对于学校环境的每个领域，研究结果表明，只有两个领域（物质环境和政策环境）在学校环境设置方面存在显著差异。
本研究表明，两种环境下学校的健康学校环境水平仍然不尽人意。由于学校环境对儿童行为有很大影响，解决学校环境中的致肥胖因素是预防策略之一。
