A Quasi Experimental Study to assess the effectiveness of Structured Teaching Programme on Knowledge regarding eating disorders among adolescent girls in selected senior secondary school at Sangrur Punjab India

 

Mr. Mukesh Kumar

Department of Nursing, AIIMS, Rishikesh (U.K.)

 

ABSTRACT:

Introduction and Background of the study: An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating habits that negatively affect a person's physical or mentalhealth. They include binge eating disorder where people eat a large amount in a short period of time, anorexia nervosa where people eat very little and thus have a low body weight, bulimia nervosa where people eat a lot and then try to rid themselves of the food, picawhere people eat nonfood items, rumination disorder where people regurgitate food, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder where people have a lack of interest in food, and a group of other specified feeding or eating disorders.

Aim: The study to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding eating disorders among adolescent girls. Material and Methods: A quasi-experimental one group pre-test post-test research design was adopted on 50 students by using simple random sampling technique. A self-administered structured knowledge questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge followed by structured teaching programme. The analysis of data was computed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Result: In pre-test adolescent girls had poor knowledge score that is 36(72%) and only 14(28%) adolescent girls showing average knowledge score. No one had good knowledge score regarding eating disorders. In post-test the majority of adolescent girls in post-test had average knowledge score that is 41(82%)) and 9(18%) adolescent girls showing good knowledge score. There was no one who had poor knowledge score. Conclusion: It was concluded that post-test scores were more as compare to pre-test score thus adolescent girls has good knowledge score, thus the present study suggested that structured teaching programme on eating disorders was successful in gaining the knowledge of adolescent girls.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Health is a state of complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

 

An eating disorder is an illness that causes serious disturbances to everyday diet, such as eating extremely small amount of food or severely over eating.

 

A person with an eating disorder may have started out just eating smaller or large amount of food, but at some point the urge to eat less or more spiraled out of control. Severe distress or concern about body weight or shape may also signal an eating disorder. Common eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder.¹

 

Apart from Asian countries, there are some reports in Islamic countries of bulimia nervosa. Nasser in Cairo reported that the estimated prevalence of bulimia nervosa found by administering questionnaires on disordered eating was 1.2% among the school girls; using the same type of survey as the one used in Cairo, researcher estimated that 3.2% of Iranian school girls suffer from bulimia nervosa.²

 

The prevalence of eating disorders in India is lower than that of western countries but appears to be increasing. A study conducted in sample consisted mostly of females from middle socio-economic status towns and villages of North Eastern. The result indicated that southern states of India with a mean age of 12.6 years. The mean age of onset of symptoms and duration of symptoms was 11.2 years and 19.2 months, respectively. Symptoms of eating disorders were mostly seen in pre-pubertal period, belong to middle and lower socio- economic group and first born or the only child. There were more females with anorexia nervosa (female: male = 5:1) than in the psychogenic vomiting group (female: male = 2:1.5) but this was not significantly different.^3,4

 

Anorexia nervosa occurs in approximately 0.5 percent to 3.7 percent of female population. Its onset is usually between 13 and 20 year of age. But the illness can occur in any age group, including the elderly and pre-pubertal children. Anorexia nervosa also seen in male, who are thought to make up only 5% to 10% of anorexic population. The mortality from anorexia nervosa is estimated to be approximately 5%.

 

Bulimia nervosa is more common then anorexia, with an estimated occurrence of 1% to 4% t of the population and 4% to 15% t of female high school and college students. The age of onset is typically 15 to 18 year of age. The gender difference in prevalence of eating disorder may result from biological, socio-cultural and psycho-dynamic actors as well as the fact that men may be more reluctant to seek treatment. Although there are differences in the prevalence of eating disorder in men and women.⁵

 

Review found more Bulimia sufferers those anorexia sufferers in all countries. Female subject are more often affected than male subjects for both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Population based and clinic based estimates of anorexia nervosa in western countries ranged from 0% to 2.1% in male subjects and from 0.3% to 7.3% in female subjects.⁶

 

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

A quasi-experimental study pre-test post-test research design included 50 subjects. Sample was selected through simple random sampling technique. A self-administered structured knowledge questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge followed by structured teaching programme. Previous knowledge of sample was assessed by pre-test with the use of structured knowledge questionnaire on eating disorders immediately the structured teaching programme regarding eating disorders was given to group and post-test knowledge was assessed after one week of implementation of planned programme. The analysis of data was computed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The questionnaires covers the socio demographic characterstics (age, religion, standard/class, monthly income of the family, family history of eating disorders, residential area and sources of information.). Questionnaires were coded and entered in the SPSS software program and data were cleaned and made ready for statistical analysis.

 

RESULTS:

Table No.1: Classification of respondents based on level of pre-test knowledge

Criteria measure of pre knowledge score
Score Level (N= 50)	PRE (f%)
Poor (0-10)	36(72%)
Average (11-20)	14(28%)
Good (21-30)	00(00%)

Maximum score = 30 Minimum score = 00

 

Table no. 1 depicts that the majority of adolescent girls in pre-test had poor knowledge score that is 36(72%) and only 14(28%) adolescent girls showing average knowledge score. No one has good knowledge score.

 

Table No.2: Classification of respondents based on level of post-test knowledge score

Criteria measure of post Knowledge score
Score Level (N= 50)	POST (f%)
Poor (0-10)	00(00%)
Average (11-20)	41(82%)
Good (21-30)	09(18%)

Maximum score= 30Minimum score =00

 

Table no. 2 depicts that the majority of adolescent girls in post-test had average knowledge score that is 41(82%) and only 9(18%) adolescent girls showing good knowledge score. There was no one who has poor knowledge score.

 

Table No. 3: Effectiveness of structured teaching programme knowledge regarding eating disorders among adolescent girls.

Paired t- test	Mean	S.D.	Mean Diff.	Paired t- test	Table Value at 0.05	Result
Pre Knowledge	9.26 (30.86%)	2.26	7.96	27.58	2.00	S*
Post knowledge	17.22 (57.43%)	3.10

 

Table No. 4: Analysis of association between pre- test knowledge levels

Variables	Opts	Good	Average	Poor	Chi test	P value	df	Table value	Result
Age	14 years		0	0	1.073	0.5847	2	5.99	NS
	15 years		0	1
	16 years		5	17
	17 years		9	18
Religion	Christian		0	1	2.078	0.5563	3	7.815	NS
	Hindu		2	11
	Muslim		1	3
	Sikh		11	21
Standard / Class	11th		5	12	0.025	0.8732	1	3.841	NS
	12th		9	24
Monthly Income of the family	Below 5000		9	14	6.882	0.0756	3	7.815	NS
	5001/- to 10,000/-		5	9
	10,001- 15,001/-		0	10
	Above 15001/-		0	3
Family history of the eating disorders	Yes		1	8	1.552	0.2126	1	3.841	NS
	No		13	28
Residential area	Rural		9	15	2.066	0.1505	1	3.841	NS
	Urban		5	21
Sources of Information	Family Members / Peer group		14	29	3.165	0.2053	2	5.99	NS
	Health Personnel		0	0
	Print Materials		0	3
	Mass Media		0	4

 

Table no. 3 depicts that post-test mean % knowledge score was found to be higher 17.22(57.22%) with standard deviation 3.10 when compared to with pre-test knowledge score was 9.26(30.86%) with standard deviation 2.26.

 

Mean difference in knowledge score of pre-test and post-test was found to be 7.96. The statistically paired t-test implies that difference in pre-test and post-test knowledge score of adolescent girls was found statistically significant at 0.05 with paired t-test value was found to be 27.58 that was more than the table value 2.01.

 

Table no. 4 depicts that there was no significant association between gain in knowledge regarding eating disorders and demographic variable like Age, Religion, Standard/Class, Monthly income of the family, Family history of the eating disorders, Residential area, Sources of information. Hence the H2 was rejected.

 

DISCUSSION:

In the present study, it was concluded that majority of adolescent girls i.e. 36(72%) had poor and 14(28%) average level of knowledge regarding eating disorders. This similar study conducted by Kumar B, Hiral N, Suresh V (2015) in vadodara city. Gujrat gave similar findings that show poor level of knowledge in pre-test regarding eating disorders among adolescent girls. Many other supporting studies showed that knowledge regarding eating disorders were at poor level.

 

To assess the effectiveness of structured teaching programme regarding eating disorders among adolescent girls. It was concluded that majority of adolescent girls i.e. 41(82%) had average and 9(18%) good level of knowledge regarding eating disorders. The post-test knowledge regarding eating disorders among adolescent girls is highly significant, similar findings were given by Kumar B, Hiral N, Suresh V (2015).

 

To find out the association between pre-test knowledge scores regarding eating disorders among with their selected socio-demographic variables like such as age, religion, standard/class, monthly income of the family, family history of eating disorders, residential area and sources of information.

 

Kumar B, Hiral N, Suresh V (2015) Conducted a pre experimental Study to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding anorexia nervosa among adolescent girls in selected school of Vadodara city, Gujrat. The investigator used pre experimental research (one group pre-test post- design). Non probability purposive sampling technique used to select the 50 adolescent girls in Sardar vallabh bhai vidhyalaya of Vadodara city. The result was mean post-test knowledge score (22.24) is higher than the mean pre-test knowledge score (14.22). The ‘t’ calculated value 9.082 is more than tabulated value 2.56 at 0.001 level of significance. So we accept H1 and conclude that the mean post-test knowledge scores of anorexia nervosa is significantly higher than their mean pre-test knowledge score. The association between pre-test knowledge score and selected demographic variables were found out by chi square. The conclusion was structured teaching programme was very highly effective in improving the knowledge of adolescent girls regarding anorexia nervosa.⁷

 

CONCLUSION:

The present study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of the structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding eating disorders among adolescent girls in selected senior secondary school.

 

The study revealed that even though the adolescent girls had less knowledge regarding eating disorders but they had been interest to gain knowledge about all aspects.

 

It is concluded that STP on eating disorders was very effective as a teaching strategy that helped the adolescent girls to improve their knowledge.

 

REFERENCES:

1.      Sreevani R. A guide to Mental Health Nursing and Psychiatric Nursing. 3^rd ed. New Delhi: Jaypee Brother Medical Publisher; 2010.p.216-217.

2.      Nasser M. Screening for abnormal eating attitudes in population of Egyptian secondary school girls. Soc Psychiatry .1994;29; 25-30.

3.      Sjostedt JP, Nathawat SS. Eating disorder among Indian and Australian University students. J socPsychol 1998; 138: 351-357.

4.      Khandelwal SK, Saxena S. Eating disorders. An Indian perspective. Int J Soc Psychiatry 1995; 41;132-146.

5.      Stuart GW, Laraia MT. Principal and Practice of Psychaitric Nursing. 7^thed. Evolve; 2001.p.527-528

6.      Buhrich N. Frequency of Presentation of Anorexia Nervosa. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 1981;15: 153-155.

7.      Kumar B, Hiral N, Suresh V (2015). A Pre Experimental Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Structured Teaching Programme on Knowledge Regarding Anorexia Nervosa among Adolescent Girls in Selected School of Vadodara City,M.Sc., Mental Health Nursing, Sumandeep Nursing College, SumandeepVidyapeeth, Waghodia- Piparia, Vadodara, Gujarat, India , 21 september 2015.

 

 

Received on 16.12.2019          Modified on 31.12.2019

Accepted on 07.01.2020     © AandV Publications all right reserved