Effectiveness of a school-based pilot program on ‘diabesity’ knowledge scores among adolescents in Chennai, South India

Abstract

India has the 2nd largest number of children and adolescents living with diabetes in the world. Hence, the present study aimed to evaluate the knowledge on diabetes and obesity among school going adolescents in Chennai, south India. Study participants were 3505 adolescents belonging to sixth and seventh grades of select private and government schools in Chennai. A school-based intervention consisting of five classroom activities were delivered to the intervention group participants. Teachers and peer leaders from intervention schools played a key role in program delivery. The control group received a one-time standard training program on diabesity. A self-administered questionnaire was used for the assessment of knowledge levels at baseline and follow-up. Overall, 3,263 students completed the program (response rate 93.1%). Mean age of the study participants was 11.1±0.8 years. The intervention group had a significant improvement in knowledge score with the overall mean score improving from 11.51 at baseline to 12.25 at follow-up (p<0.001). The mean composite score was higher in boys, compared to girls in both intervention (12.38 vs 12.08) and control (11.30 vs 10.99) groups. Participants in the intervention group were 1.31 (95%CI: 1.12-1.52 p value: <0.001) times more likely to have a good knowledge score about diabesity, compared to the control group. School-based interventions are a successful way of reaching out to a large number of adolescents in order to increase awareness about diabetes and obesity.