Abstract

Many diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, are often the result of specific lifestyle behaviors or habits which can develop in childhood. Growing evidence suggests high levels of cardiovascular risk prevalence among school-aged children. Teaching strategies that are effective in seeking to promote health and well-being in children need to be developed and empirically evaluated. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in pre and posttest knowledge levels about cardiovascular fitness and nutrition after a teaching module. Nola J. Pender's Health Promotion Model served as a guide for this research. The design used for this research was a pretestposttest quasi-expérimenta1 design. A two-tailed dependent t test was utilized for data analysis. The hypothesis for this study was, there will be no difference in knowledge levels about cardiovascular fitness and nutrition for children before and after completing a teaching module. Levels of knowledge about cardiovascular fitness and nutrition were measured through the utilization of a quiz entitled "Here's Looking At You Kid" by the American Heart Association. A convenience sample of 55 sixth grade students was chosen from four elementary schools in Tuscaloosa County. Pretests were given by the researcher to each of the four selected classes separately and a teaching module was then implemented. One month later, the pretests were repeated as posttests to check for retention of knowledge. The results demonstrated a statistically significant increase in knowledge levels between pretest and posttest, t (54) = -4.76, p = .000. These findings suggest that sixth graders are at an ideal age to learn and understand more about cardiovascular fitness and nutrition. Few research studies have been done to evaluate the effects of a teaching program about CV fitness, nutrition, and other health promoting behaviors on children. Further research is recommended to determine if similar findings will occur with replication of this study. Nurse practitioners should incorporate assessment of cardiovascular risk factors in the primary health care of children and their families. The findings from this study may make nurse practitioners more aware of the importance of cardiovascular assessment in children.

Degree

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Department

Graduate Nursing

Degree Date

8-1-1995

Publication Number

27919765

First Advisor

Dr. Lynn Chilton

Second Advisor

Linda Sullivan

Third Advisor

Carol Vinzant

Document Type

Thesis

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