Managing Adolescent Obesity at Local Level by Combining Primary and Secondary Intervention

The proposed intervention will focus on encouraging students to change their eating habits and food consumption over 9 months (from March to November). Monthly 1-h sessions in the classroom will be given by the class teacher, and includes playing games, staging theater sketches, watching movies and puppet shows, and writing and drawing contests. The activities were designed to discourage students from consuming sugar-sweetened beverages as well as getting them to replace snacks, particularly processed foods (especially cookies) with fresh fruit or healthy homemade food. To reinforce the messages of the in-class nutritional sessions, a set of messages will be sent to the families in the form of illustrated booklets and recipes.

The secondary prevention strategy at households will be developed for those with excessive weight. The family will receive additional motivation to change these behaviors, using the community health agents as the encourager.