IMPACT OF LIFE SKILLS TRAINING ON LEVEL OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AMONGST SCHOOL ADOLESCENTS: A NON-RANDOMIZED INTERVENTIONAL STUDY

INTRODUCTION: In India, life skills have often been looked at only from the reproductive health perspective and its effect on physical activity behavior of adolescents is little explored. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to impart life skills training to school adolescents, assess its impact on their level of physical activity and compare it with control group.

METHODS: It was a non-randomized interventional study with a control group. Study participants were students studying in class IX and XI of two schools in Delhi. A pre-designed, pre-tested self-administered questionnaire containing items for assessment of physical activity of the adolescents, was used to collect the data at the baseline, 15 days (only in intervention school) and 3 months after the life-skills training. Anthropometric measurements were taken too at the time of data collection. Based on the findings from baseline data, two life-skills training sessions were conducted per section of each standard, 15 days after the first visit for baseline data. Data was analyzed in SPSS 16.0.

RESULTS: There were 180 students in the intervention group and 183 students in control group. Significant increase was noted in the level of vigorous physical activity, stretching and strengthening exercises and light-moderate physical activity (p<0.001) amongst the adolescents in intervention group over the period of three months following the life skills training in comparison to control school. The number of students going for Physical Education classes also increased following the training. The mean time spent by overweight children in outdoor games also improved at 3 months (66.79±83.06 min to 81.43±82.82 min) in the intervention group.

CONCLUSIONS:  To conclude, the study provides sufficient evidence that skills based approach does help to improve the level of physical activity amongst the school adolescents.