Generalization of back education principles by elementary school children: evaluation with a practical test and a candid camera observation.
The efficacy of back education in elementary school children was shown using a practical test. Similar results in a candid camera evaluation were questioned. The purposes of this study were (i) to explore the relationship between the results of a practical test and the results of a candid camera procedure when evaluating back education principles, and (ii) to investigate whether in a candid camera procedure scores are still better in pupils who followed a back education programme than in controls. A candid camera evaluation followed by a practical test was performed in 71 pupils who had participated in a back education programme and 60 controls. Correlations between the two evaluation methods were significant but weak for 5 of the 9 test items in the intervention group (Rs 0.26-0.46) and for 7 test items in the control group (Rs 0.38-0.58). The difference in sum scores between the evaluation methods was significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group (p < 0.001). The intervention group scored higher than the control group for 8 practical test items and 7 candid evaluation items.


CONCLUSIONS
The study results question the use of a practical test for the individual evaluation of back education principles but show the usefulness of a practical test to study programme efficacy. As some principles seem to have become a habit, while for the implementation of others the pupils need external stimuli, the effects of more specific guidelines for parents and teachers to generalize back education principles require further study.
Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium. greet.cardon@rug.ac.be
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D001416:Back Pain / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001530:Belgium; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D005260:Female; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006266:Health Education; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019370:Observation; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students; D013690:Television