A comparison of health behavior and its effective factors in the students of primary schools with and without health educators in Zirkouh County 2015-2016

Background: School health involves all activities aimed at providing, maintaining and promoting students’ health. The health educator is responsible for providing of health services in schools. The aim of this study was to compare health behavior and its effective factors among the students of primary schools with and without health educators in Zirkouh County, South Khorasan Province, Iran in 2015. Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study where in a total of 250 primary school students in Zirkouh County (125 with health educator and 125 without health educator) were randomly selected. They were subsequently examined through a researcher-made questionnaire holding 59 items based on a three-point Likert scale. Data were analyzed in SPSS-18 using statistical tests including t-test and univariate and multivariate ANOVA. The significance level was considered at P 0.05. Results: The results showed that the sleep health score was significantly higher in the group with health educator, although the two groups did not differ in terms of health behavior and its other sub-scales (p 0.05). The multivariate ANOVA showed that gender, education, and father’s occupation variables affected the students health behaviors. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that the presence of a health educator in schools had an impact on the students’ health behavior, sleep health and personal health; however, it did not affect their nutritional behavior and physical activity. Hence, a great emphasis should be placed on the role and position of health educators, their regular presence in schools, and their interaction with parents.