PURPOSE
This study was done to develop and test the effectiveness in late school-aged children of a healthy lifestyle education program for cancer prevention.
METHODS
Participants were 26 students in the sixth grade of N elementary school in J City (experimental group) and 25 students in the sixth grade of D elementary school with same educational conditions (control group). The research design was a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design.
Data collection and execution of the study were carried out from March 10 to May 19, 2011. For the experimental treatment, 7 weekly sessions of the healthy lifestyle education program for cancer prevention were given by the researcher. Posttest was done immediately following the conclusion of the program and 4 weeks later. Frequencies, percentages, chi2-test, t-test, repeated measures ANOVA and paired t-test with SPSS WIN 18.0 were used to analyze the data.
RESULTS
Perceived barriers, perceived self-efficacy, activity related effect and family support significantly influenced cancer prevention knowledge and increases in healthy life styles.
CONCLUSION
Results indicate that, as this program for cancer prevention was effective in increasing healthy lifestyle practices in these children, there is a need to further develop, test and implement programs in all schools.
