Article Review: Addressing Social Factors and Student Behavior from Health-Related Behaviors

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Summary

The relationship between physical activity, screen time and dietary behavior varies at different age-levels. An increase in obesity in Chinese children led to the establishment of the National Youth Health Risk Behaviors Investigation (NYHRBI) in 2005 and an investigation in the Jiangsu Province that utilized surveys designed by China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Then in 2013, the NYHRBI collected follow-up data (Liu et. al., 2017, p. 731).

In like manner, the researchers of this article created surveys using systematic randomized cluster sampling. In total, “The dataset was relatively large, with 55,361 students enrolled in the study: 19,035 middle school students, 24,178 high school students and 12,148 college students” (Liu et. al., 2017, p. 732). All participants volunteered, were briefed and provided consent before completing the surveys. “Two exclusion criteria were applied [to the data collected from the surveys]: (1) missing results in any of the key questions . . . (2) students who selected, ‘I do not know’ for question five” (Liu et. al., 2017, p. 732). Six predictors that would contribute to obesity were considered: gender, age, BMI, mother’s education, allowance, and geographic region (Liu et. al., 2017, p. 732). The primary results of the study showed that the increase in education level directly affects the increase in screen time positively and decreases physical activity and dietary behavior negatively (Liu et. al., 2017, p. 733). The greatest strength to the study is the sampling due to the large size. The greatest limitation to the study is the self-reported nature of the questionnaires.

Analysis

The collected data seems to indicate that as people increase in age, their education level increases which requires more screen-time. An increase in screen time replaces the time spent on physical activity that younger people maintain. This increase in education level and screen time also removes time dedicated to positive dietary behavior. Shopping for fresh groceries, preparing healthy meals and snacks requires much more time than take-out, fast-food, and frozen meals or snacks (Rafacz, 2019, p. 649, 652).

What this study does not account for is the increase in social independence with the increase in age. High school and college students participate in social activities that require more time than those of children. Maintaining positive physical activity and dietary behavior becomes increasingly difficult to accomplish as the educational and social level increases. Scripture teaches that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19). It also teaches that our life is but a vapor and that we are not promised tomorrow (James 4:14). To effectively practice these two truths, I must recognize that there is value in taking care of my body; but I must also recognize that the race against time keeps me focusing too much on the things of this earth. Because I claim to be a believer in Christ, I must realize that what truly matters are the actions that will impact eternity since I do not know when my last day on this earth will be.

References

King James Bible. (2017). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1769)

Liu, W., He, Mike., Wang, Y., Wang, Y., Zhou, Y., Wu, M., Dai, Y., Yuan, B., Zhen, S., Cheskin, L. (2017). Differences in health-related behaviors between middle school, high school, and college students in Jiangsu province, China. Asia Pacific Journal Clinical Nutrition Vol. 26(4) pp. 731-737. Accessed 4 July, 2020: doi: 10.6133/apjcn.072016.06

Rafacz, Sharlet D. (2019). Healthy eating: approaching the selection, preparation, and consumption of healthy food as choice behavior. Perspectives on Behavior Science Vol. 42 pp. 647-674. Accessed 5 July, 2020: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-018-00190-y