Be Energetic: Study of the Education and Promotion of Weight Control in School Children of Hong Kong

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has lasted for over three years, has caused changes in the living habits of school children. It is estimated that the situation of overweight and underweight among school children has aggravated. According to the available data before the pandemic in the 2019/20 school year provided by the Department of Health, the rate of overweight (including obesity) among school children in Hong Kong is 19.0% (Primary schools) and 21.3% (Secondary schools). The interdisciplinary research team of CUHK released the 2022 Hong Kong Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Adolescents last year, showing the urgent need to improve the overall physical activity level of children and adolescents. Obesity in children and adolescents is associated with unbalanced diets and insufficient physical activity, which may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and certain cancers. At the same time, some children and adolescents are underweight or have insufficient nutritional intake due to various reasons like picky eating, which is not conducive to growth and balanced development. Children and adolescents also need to learn and practice healthy weight management.

Purpose and Targets

The Centre will launch a 16-month health promotion research (pilot project) in September 2023, aiming to help students from upper primary grades to junior secondary grades to do more physical activities and maintain a healthy diet for effective body weight management through a collaborative model with the strength and efforts of schools, families and peers. We have successfully recruited a secondary school and a primary school to participate and hope to share the research results with the public after the completion of the pilot project and benefit more children and young people in the future.

Implementation Strategies

• Identifying students with weight management needs
• Promoting physical fitness and nutrition in students
• Activities for parents
• "Student Health Mentors" training and teacher support
• Pre-test and post-test to collect data, evaluate the programme effectiveness and explore the effectiveness of different methods and factors in improving healthy living habits and physical fitness in overweight and underweight school children.

Organized By

Funded By

This project is supported by the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund and the Knowledge Transfer Fund at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

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Updated on 15 August 2024