Abstract
Background and objectives: The effectiveness of short-term focused educational programs to change health behaviors across large populations seems to be poorly described so far. The main aim of the present study was to evaluate an age-specific 45-min educational program, designed in accordance with the current U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture dietary guidelines and physical activity (PA) guidelines, among adolescents and adults. Materials and Methods: We evaluated the health-promoting lifestyle habits by the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP-II) at baseline and following 6–8 weeks post-education in a nationally representative sample of Serbian adolescents and adults (n = 3822). Results: The percentage of adolescents eating 3–5 servings of vegetables per day increased at follow-up (20.1% versus 23.1%, p = 0.001), with significantly more adolescents regularly reading food labels (from 12.2% at baseline to 14.2% at follow-up; p = 0.02). Taken together, mean HPLP-II scores in adolescents significantly improved for both diet (0.05 points; p < 0.0001) and PA (0.09 points; p < 0.0001), and for PA in adults (0.08 points; p < 0.0001). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that our model as a whole (including time of testing as a predictor variable, and age and gender as control variables) explained 3.0% of the variance in mean HPLP-II scores for diet (p = 0.942) and 3.0% for PA (p = 0.285) in adolescents, and 1.1% of the variance in HPLP-II scores for diet (p = 0.781) and 1.9% for PA (p = 0.075) in adults, respectively. Conclusions: It appears that a brief focused education can positively tackle unhealthy lifestyles in promoting good health in general population. Different modes of interactive communication used here appeared to strengthen participants’ capacities for lifestyle changes.
Highlights
Education about a proper diet and physical activity (PA) remains an important component of health promotion efforts [1], having in mind that people are becoming more sedentary and often eat unhealthy diets [2]
Approximately 16.0 million (1.0%) disability adjusted life years (DALYs, a measure of the potential life lost due to premature mortality and the years of productive life lost due to disability) and 1.7 million (2.8%) of deaths worldwide are attributable to low fruit and vegetable consumption [9], while 3.2 million deaths each year are attributable to insufficient physical activity [10]
To tackle this, leading health authorities continuously develop and update global guidelines on healthy lifestyles to help general population embrace the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to develop a healthful diet and be physically active [11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. These guidelines encourage people of all ages to regularly participate in physical activities that are appropriate for their age [11], and consume a healthy diet across the lifespan by shifting to healthier food choices while limiting added sugars, saturated fats, and sodium, in aim to prevent malnutrition and chronic diseases [15]
Summary
Education about a proper diet and physical activity (PA) remains an important component of health promotion efforts [1], having in mind that people are becoming more sedentary and often eat unhealthy diets [2]. To tackle this, leading health authorities continuously develop and update global guidelines on healthy lifestyles to help general population embrace the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to develop a healthful diet and be physically active [11,12,13,14,15,16,17] These guidelines encourage people of all ages to regularly participate in physical activities that are appropriate for their age (e.g., at least 150 min a week of moderate-intensity activity in adults, or 60 min or more of physical activity daily in children and adolescents) [11], and consume a healthy diet across the lifespan by shifting to healthier food choices (such as nuts, whole fruits, and vegetables) while limiting added sugars, saturated fats, and sodium, in aim to prevent malnutrition and chronic diseases [15].
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