Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Teachers--Health risk assessment; Health behavior; Health education; Teachers--Health and hygiene;

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the personal health practices of school health educators endorsed by the Iowa Department of Education to determine if their health practices were consistent with the formal health education instruction they provided. A health education questionnaire and health risk appraisal, designed to obtain information about the personal health practices and formal instruction provided, were sent to a sample of 200 randomly selected school health educators endorsed by the Iowa Department of Education. There were 106 usable responses for a 53% return rate. The majority of the participants in this study were females in the 36-55 years-old age group who were Caucasian college graduates. Interpretations from the health risk appraisal generated summary data from the sample and compared it to national data on measures that represent important areas for health promotion programming. Compared to the national average, the risk level of endorsed school health educators who participated in this study was high only in terms of the percentage of the group who are 20% or more overweight. Respondent's risk level was slightly above the national average in terms of the percentage of the group who have systolic blood pressure at or greater than 140 and/or have a diastolic blood pressure at or greater than 90. The risk level was low in terms of the percentage of the group who wear their seat belts less than 90% of the time and who are currently smokers. The risk level of endorsed school health educators surveyed was moderately low for the percentage of the group who have total cholesterol levels at or above 240. The participants in this study were slightly below the national average for risk levels in terms of the percentage of the group who exercise less than three times per week and were just below the national average in terms of the percentage of the group who are not satisfied with their lives. A significant negative correlation between risk age and positive teaching was found which indicates a relationship exists between the selected health behaviors of endorsed school health educators in Iowa and the health behaviors encouraged in the formal instruction they provided in the classroom. This confirmed the author's premise that endorsed school health educators in Iowa who teach formal instruction regarding positive health behaviors are also practicing those behaviors. Thus the health practices of those surveyed were consistent with the formal health education instruction they provided.

Year of Submission

1997

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

School of Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services

First Advisor

Sue Joslyn

Second Advisor

Tom Davis

Third Advisor

Dennis Cryer

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to [email protected] and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

1997

Object Description

1 PDF file (69 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Share

COinS