Awareness and Practices of Healthy Lifestyle among Economics Teachers in Public Secondary Schools in Delta North Senatorial District Nigeria

Abstract

A paradigm shift rooted in re-orienting teachers for a healthy lifelong style is important for the creation of this awareness and practice among teachers. Hence, these studies' specific purpose are to determine the levels of awareness of teachers on healthy lifestyles and the levels of practices of Economics teachers on a healthy lifestyle. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Three research questions and one null hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. The population comprised all 2,266 secondary school teachers in 166 public secondary schools in Delta North Senatorial district of Nigeria. The sample was 206 teachers made up of 96 males and 110 females. A -25 item structured questionnaire titled, "Questionnaire on levels of awareness and practices of healthy lifestyle of Economics Teachers (QLAPHLET)" instrument which was developed by the researchers from the review of the literature was used for data collection. The questionnaire was face validated by 3 experts, 1 in nutrition and dietetics, 1 in health education, and 1 in measurement and evaluation. The Cronbach Alpha method was used to compute the internal consistency of the instrument and obtained a reliability coefficient of 0.86, 0.79, and overall of 0.83 Data collected for the study were analyzed using mean scores and standard deviation to answer the research questions while t-test statistics were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that teachers were aware of a healthy lifestyle but few were not. It was also found that teachers practice these healthy lifestyles without consciousness that they are necessary for healthy living. The study further found that there was a significant difference in the level of practice among male and female teachers. Based on these findings, it was concluded that teachers should understand the need for healthy lifestyles not on through awareness but also by practicing them for long life and increased productivity. It was recommended among others that teachers need seminar on tips to healthy life practices.