A study on physical activity by a need-based curriculum for students in a rural area of West Bengal

BACKGROUND: Students must be made aware about the essentiality of optimum level of physical activity and the fact that it is the key to good health and an important technique to prevent and control a lot of noncommunicable diseases including depression and other related mental ill-health. MATERIALS AND METHODS: It was an institution-based intervention study among 187 Madrasah students of classes VII and VIII, conducted in five-phase assessment of the training needs of Madrasah students on different aspects of healthy lifestyle, development of a need-based module to be used by teachers to impart training of students through classroom setting, training of teachers to use the module to train students, training of students by the trained teachers in classroom setting, and evaluation of effectiveness of the training module. RESULTS: The mean pretest knowledge score in study Madrasah was 2.64 +/- 1.35 (Mean +/- SD) and post test score was 4.13 +/- 0.88 (Mean +/- SD). In paired t- test, t- value was 13.54 and P < 0.05 with effect size of 1.370 (Cohen's d). Practice related to the mean score in pretest was 2.38 +/- 1.08 and posttest score was 2.73 +/- 1.03. In paired test, t- value was 6.25 and P < 0.05 with effect size of 0.458 (Cohen's d). CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed the effectiveness of training by teachers using the module developed by the researcher to address significant changes in lifestyle-related issues.