Health Promotion Division, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Gurgaon, Haryana, 122002, India.
School of Public Health, Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Austin, Texas, 78701, USA.
F1000Res. 2021 Jul 7;10:544. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.51136.2. eCollection 2021.
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are escalating in India and can be attributed to behavioural risk factors such as unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and tobacco use that began in early years. Understanding adolescents' knowledge, attitudes and behaviours (KAB) related to NCD risk factors would inform the development of school-based health programmes to prevent NCDs. Sixth-grade students (n=1026) in 20 schools (10 private, 10 public) from two Indian cities (n=667 from Pune; n=359 from Bengaluru) participated in a KAB survey in 2019. Differences in KAB by gender, school type within cities were investigated. Knowledge about the harms of tobacco use was higher than knowledge about a healthy diet and importance of physical activity. Only a small proportion of students did not eat breakfast (8.7%) or fruits (11.3%) daily. Only 33.4% of students read nutrition labels before choosing their food. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity of less than an hour per day was reported by 42.5% of students. Approximately one-third of students had ever tried smoking tobacco (30.1%), smokeless tobacco (30.5%), and e-cigarettes (32.4%). Differences in these behaviours by gender and school type showed that both boys, girls and students of private and public schools are vulnerable. The study findings highlight that knowledge is low for thematic areas like diet and physical activity. While knowledge of tobacco related harms is better but the prevalence of ever tobacco use was found to be high. Socio-demographic factors such as school type and gender had a varying effect on various KAB indicators. There is a need to strengthen health education activities by developing context-specific health intervention materials by engaging school children, their parents, teachers, and communities to promote healthy behaviours among adolescents. Need to augment school health programmes in India with a differential approach based on the issues, specific to school type and city.
非传染性疾病（NCDs）在印度呈上升趋势，可归因于不健康饮食、缺乏身体活动和使用烟草等行为风险因素，这些因素始于早年。了解青少年与 NCD 风险因素相关的知识、态度和行为（KAB），将为制定基于学校的健康计划以预防 NCD 提供信息。2019 年，来自印度两个城市（浦那 667 名，班加罗尔 359 名）的 20 所学校（10 所私立，10 所公立）的六年级学生（n=1026）参加了一项 KAB 调查。研究了城市内不同性别和学校类型的 KAB 差异。关于烟草使用危害的知识高于关于健康饮食和身体活动重要性的知识。只有一小部分学生（8.7%）每天不吃早餐或水果（11.3%）。只有 33.4%的学生在选择食物前阅读营养标签。报告每天进行不到一小时中等至剧烈身体活动的学生比例为 42.5%。约三分之一的学生曾尝试过吸烟（30.1%）、无烟烟草（30.5%）和电子烟（32.4%）。这些行为的性别和学校类型差异表明，男孩、女孩和私立及公立学校的学生都很容易受到影响。研究结果表明，知识在饮食和身体活动等主题领域较低。虽然与烟草相关的危害知识更好，但吸烟的流行率却很高。社会人口因素，如学校类型和性别，对各种 KAB 指标有不同的影响。需要通过开发针对具体情况的健康干预材料，让学生、家长、教师和社区参与其中，以促进青少年的健康行为，加强健康教育活动。需要根据学校类型和城市的具体问题，以差异化的方式来加强印度的学校健康计划。
