To assess youth health behaviours and related quality of life in urban Tunisia, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of 699 secondary-school students. The overweight rate was 20.7%. Most of the sample had an insufficient level of physical activity and were unfamiliar with the recommended frequency of moderate physical activity. Norm-based scores of psychological stat...

To obtain blood pressure distribution for Iranian children, we assessed 10,288 students aged 6-13 years (4871 boys and 5417 girls) in Tehran. Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure showed incremental increases with age, weight and height in both sexes. Mean increases in systolic blood pressure for boys and girls were 1.7 and 0.8 mmHg per year respectively and for diastolic blood pressure we...

OBJECTIVE To determine the relationship between anthropometric indices and the age of menarche in female students of Sabzevar, Iran. METHODS The cross-sectional study was conducted in Sabzevar, Iran, from April to September 2010, and involved girls of 11-18 years of age. The required sample size for analysing the relationship between menarche age and Body Mass Index was estimated to be 110 by...

BACKGROUND Participation in physical activities provides students with opportunities for social interaction and social skills development. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations of students' recess physical activity with school-related social factors. METHODS Data were collected in 19 schools countrywide in autumn 2010, and 1463 students from grades 4 and 5 (primary sch...

OBJECTIVE To identify the prevalence of body image dissatisfaction and associated factors among students in Salvador, Brazil. METHODS A cross-sectional study involving a random sample of 1,494 (852 girls and 642 boys) adolescents between 11 and 17 years of age who were students in the public schools in Salvador, Brazil. Participants completed the Body Shape Questionnaire and the Eating Attitu...

PURPOSE Our study aimed to evaluated sex differences in clinical features of obese high school students. METHODS One hundred three obese high school students (body mass index [BMI]≥85th percentile) and 51 control students (BMI<85th percentile) were enrolled in this study. Anthropometric measurements were performed. Fasting serum glucose, insulin, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotrans...

INTRODUCTION Sports and physical activity are major components of a healthy lifestyle. The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between sport and physical activity and alcohol consumption among adolescent students based on gender. POPULATION AND METHODS Descriptive, crosssectional, comparative study conducted in adolescent students (aged between 14 and 17 years old) from th...

OBJECTIVE To assess the impact on children's health of translating an evidence-based national intervention trial (Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health [CATCH]) to low-income elementary schools with primarily Hispanic students. DESIGN An untreated, matched control group design with repeated dependent pretest and posttest samples was used. SETTING Four El Paso CATCH and 4 cont...

BACKGROUND School visits to farms are a positive educational experience but pose risks due to the spread of zoonotic infections. A lesson plan to raise awareness about microbes on the farm and preventative behaviours was developed in response to the Griffin Investigation into the E. coli outbreak associated with Godstone Farm in 2009. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the delivery of th...

The use of technology (information and communication technology, ICT) in secondary education is an important aspect of the current curriculum and of teachers’ pedagogy. Learning supported by computers is supposed to be motivating for students and is, therefore, assumed to have positive effects on learning experiences and results. However, the question remains whether these motivating effects ar...