Correlation of Nutritional Status and Assessment of Affective Domain as Indices of Health Promotion among Students of Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State

Abstract

This study examined the correlation of nutritional status and affective domain of students in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. Only private secondary schools were involved in the study as they have an assessment format for affective domain. The study design was a correlation survey design. Three private secondary schools were randomly selected from the twelve private schools that have assessment format for affective domain. The population was all the 153 JSS2 students (51 JSS2 students in each of the three schools). Total population sampling (sample size equaling the population size) was used as the population of JSS2 students in each of the school was 51 students (not large). The respondents were 153 Junior Secondary School (JSS) students (76 males and 77 females) ages 9-14 years from three private junior secondary schools. Two research questions were posited for the study. The instruments for data collection were students’ learning report card which already has measures of affective domain characteristics such as attentiveness, attitude to class work/assignment, attendance, and diligence and the other instrument was anthropometric measures of height, weight and Body Mass Index (BMI). Anthropometric measurements were done using manual weight scale in kilograms (kg) to measure participants’ weight and stadiometer calibrated in centimeter (cm) to measure participants’ heights. Affective domain characteristics extracted from participants’ report card were scores for: attentiveness, attitude to class work/assignment, attendance, and diligence. The data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2010, and Graph Pad Prism. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient at P>0.05 significant level was used to determine the level of correlation between BMI categories of healthy weight, overweight, obese, and underweight; and the affective domain characteristics of each student. The findings show that participants with healthy weight have the highest level of the affective domain characteristics (78.44%), while obese participants have the least (3.9%). The findings also revealed a strong positive correlation between overweight and attentiveness; and attitude to class work/assignment but revealed a weak correlation with diligence in male participants. Good diet with healthy lifestyle is therefore recommended as it has significant health benefits that can help reduce the risk of major health problems.