[The effectiveness of an intervention program to promote physical activity among female adolescents in a vocational nursing school].
The purpose of this research was to explore the impact of a physical activity program on exercise knowledge, exercise attitude, exercise self-efficacy, exercise behavior, and cardiorespiratory fitness among female students. A vocational nursing school was selected by purposeful sampling. The experimental group (n=88) and control group (n=89) each contained two classes which were randomly selected from 11th grade classes in the vocational nursing school. All participants completed a structured questionnaire, including an exercise knowledge scale, an exercise attitude scale, an exercise self-efficacy scale, and a cardiorespiratory fitness activities scale at both the pre-test and the post-test stages. An 800-meter running test was used to test the cardiorespiratory fitness of participants. One week after the pre-test, the experimental group received a 12-week physical activity program, while the control group did not receive any intervention. The statistical analysis included percentage, mean, one-way ANOVA, pair-t test and repeated-measures two-way ANOVA. The results showed that improvements in exercise attitude, exercise self-efficacy, exercise knowledge and 800-meter running among the experimental group were significantly higher than among the control group. However, there was no significant effect on the score for cardiorespiratory fitness activities. The results of this research could be used as a reference for school health professionals to promote physical activities for female adolescents.
Hsu
Li-Fang
LF
School of Nursing, Min-Hwei College of Health Care Management, Taiwan, ROC.
Wang
Ruey-Hsia
RH
D000293:Adolescent; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D010809:Physical Fitness; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology; D013624:Taiwan