[A predictive model of health promotion behavior in obese school-age children].

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to propose and to test a predictive model that could explain and predict the health promotion behavior of obese school-age children in Korea. METHODS Participants for this study were 365 students from 13 elementary schools located in Jeonbuk Province, Korea. The data were analyzed using SPSS 15.0 program and Amos 7.0 program. RESULTS The results verified the factors that influence health promotion behavior of the participants. Important direct factors were prior health-related behavior, perceived self-efficacy, and commitment to a plan of action and indirect factors were perceived barrier and activity-related effect. These factors explained 75.3% of variance in the participants' health promotion behavior. The proposed model was concise and extensive in predicting health promotion behavior of the participants. CONCLUSION Findings may provide useful assistance in developing effective nursing interventions for maintaining and promoting health promotion behavior in obese school-age children.