Abstract

The purpose of this study was to provide basic data on elementary school children's lifestyle and to contribute to developing on the health education program in elementary schools. The subjects were 1,412 children in 4 elementary schools in Gangwon-Do and Chonrabuk-Do area. Data collection was done from September to November 2001 by questionnaire and school health documents. The questionnaire corrected for the purpose of this study which had been developed by Bronson School of Nursing(1991), 'Lifestyle Questionnaire for School-age Children'. The questionnaire consists of 3 categories; 'Activities that promote health', 'Injury prevention', 'Feeling'. Cronbach coefficient alpha for the 29 items was .68. The data analyzed to obtain frequency, mean, percentage, t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient by SPSS Win program. The results of this study were as follows. 1. Females(50.2%) of gender, 6th grade(24.2%) of grade, nuclear family(82.0%) of family type, beyond college graduate(54.5%) of father's school career, under high school graduate(58.1%) of mother's school career, first of birth order(47.1%) were majority. Mean of father's age was 41.2 and mother's age was 38.1. 2. The mean of lifestyle was 66.4, feeling was 73.3, activities that promote health was 60.3 and injury prevention was 64.0. The highest degree of activities that promote health was "I eat fruits" and injury prevention was "I look both ways when crossing streets"and feeling was "I enjoy my family". The lowest degree of activities that promote health was "I visit the dentist every tear" and injury prevention was "I wear a helmet when I go on bike trips" and feeling was "I think it is okay to cry". 3. There were significant differences in lifestyle of gender(t=4.309, p=.000), grade(F=6.299, p=.000), father's age(t=2.534, p=.011), father's education(t=-4.933, p=.000), mother's education(t=-3.360, p=.001), birth order (t=5.363, p=.000). There were significant differences in activities that promote health of gender(t=-2.462, P=.014), grade(F=4.893, p=.000), father's education(t=-4.480, p=.000), birth order(t=4.343, p=.000), in injury prevention of gender(t=-4.452, p=.000), grade(F=8.636, p=.000), father's age(t=3.386, p=.001), mother's age(t=2.059, p=.040), father's education(t=-6.051, p=.000), mother's education(t=-5.173, p=.000), birth order(t= 4.417, p=.000) and in feeling of gender (t=-3.285, p=.001), grade(F=7.526, p=.000), mother's age(t=-3.268, p=.001). 4. Activities that promote health was positively correlated with injury prevention(r=.432, p=.000), feeling(r=.210, p=.000), lifestyle (r=.785, p=.000). Injury prevention was positively correlated with feeling(r=.256, p=.000), lifestyle(r=.854, p=.000) also feeling was positively correlated with lifestyle(r=.504, p=.000). These findings suggest the need to develop nursing strategy to promote elementary school children's health. Because helmet use score in injury prevention marked the lowest score, it is necessary to encourage helmet use when planning injury prevention and health promotion.

• Keywords: Elementary school children;Lifestyle