Maßnahmen zur Krankheitsprävention bei Schülerinnen und Schülern der Gesundheits- und Krankenpflege: eine kontrollierte sechswöchige Pilotstudie

Abstract

Interventions for disease prevention among nursing students: A controlled six-week pilot study Objectives: This study was designed to evaluate whether training on disease prevention results in measurable behavioural change among nursing students in terms of number of steps, sport units and portions of fruit/vegetables. Methods: Two classes of nursing students were allocated into an interventional and a control group. Only the interventional group received training on health promotion and disease prevention, but both groups were monitored for 42 days. The main end points were number of steps per day, number of sport units per week and portions of fruit/vegetables per day. Mean values and standard deviations (SD) were calculated and statistically compared between both groups. Results: A total of 46 students were included in the study. The mean age of the participants was 21.3 (SD 5.2) years in the interventional group (n=22) and 19.0 (SD 1.4) years in the control group (n=24). Participants in the interventional group walked more steps per day and completed more sport units per week over the whole study period, with significant differences compared to the control group only during the period from day 29 to day 42 (Steps: 6258 vs. 3654; Δ: 2604.4 [95% CI: 556.8; 4652.1]; p=0.015/Sport units: 3.1 [SD 2.1] vs. 1.6 [SD 1.4]; Δ1.5 [95% CI: 0.2; 2.3]; p=0.03) respectively. There was no significant difference between both groups for portions of fruit/vegetables per day. Conclusion: This pilot study indicates that the cost-effective training of nursing students could result in a change in exercise behaviour. Nevertheless, these are only initial findings and further long-term studies are needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn. Keywords: disease prevention – nursing students – nursing