Improving the Lifestyle of Adolescents Through Peer Education and Support in Vietnam: Protocol for a Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, recent studies found a rapid increase in overweight and obesity in adolescents. There is a need for effective health promotion interventions to support healthy diets and encourage a physically active lifestyle. This study will help fill an evidence gap on effective interventions to prevent excess weight gain in adolescents and generate new insights about peer-led education to promote healthy lifestyles. Objective We aim to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a combined peer-led and peer support intervention among junior high school students in Ho Chi Minh City. Additionally, the efficacy of the intervention on adolescents’ dietary practices and time spent on physical activity will also be measured in this pilot study. Methods The Peer Education and Peer Support (PEPS) project is a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial with 2 intervention and 2 control schools. The intervention consists of 4 weekly education sessions of why and how to choose healthy food and drinks and how to be more physically active. Additionally, the intervention includes a school-based and online support system to help maintain student engagement during the intervention. We will use in-depth interviews with students, peer leaders, teachers, and parents; focus group discussions with peer educators; and direct observation of the school environment and peer leaders’ interactions with the students. Acceptability and feasibility of the intervention will be assessed. We will also quantitatively assess limited efficacy by measuring changes in student’ physical activity levels and dietary behaviors. Results We delivered the peer education intervention at the start of each school year over 3 months for all new grade 6 adolescents in the selected schools, followed by peer support and home engagement activities over 6 months until the end of the school year. There was a baseline assessment and 2 post-intervention assessments: the first immediately after the intervention to assess the short-term impact and the second at the end of the school year to assess the sustained impact on changes in adiposity, diet, and physical activity. Conclusions The findings of this study will be used to develop a larger-scale cluster randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of a multicomponent, school- and home-based health promotion intervention. The trial will use innovative peer education methods to reduce overweight and obesity and improve dietary choices and physical activity levels in Vietnamese adolescents. Trial Registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12619000421134; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=376690&isReview=true International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/15930

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“…Meningkatkan aktivitas fisik 4. Edukasi teman sebaya mengenai resiko penyakit jantung (Kayyali, 2012;Tang et al, 2020) 4. METODE Kegiatan ini merupakan sebuah bentuk pengabdian kepada masyarakat yang dilakukan dalam bentuk pelatihan dengan demonstrasi kepada peserta.…”

“…studi literatur merekomendasikan penggunaan teknologi, peer education, focus group discussion sebagai metode peningkatan pengetahuan bahaya jantung bagi para remaja ( (Raeside et al, 2019;Tang et al, 2020).…”

Training of Peer Leaders: A Strategy to Enhance Provision of Psychosocial Support to Vulnerable Learners in Schools

“…Grek (2020), in his study in Sweden posits that the mechanisms through which the education system funding is governed, directed, or monitored should be guided by the identified needs, arguing that it is critical to allocate adequate resources to areas where they are needed. In addition, Tang, Nguyen, Dibley, Nguyen & Alam (2020) in their study in Vietnam, highlight that level of funding for various educational activities is a matter that those in authority should prioritise by ensuring that resource allocations are informed by learner needs. Globally, most school programmes' funding comes from public budgets, and these always compete with other priorities from the government's perspectives, as a result, it is often common for low key programmes such as peer education to receive little recognition (Mitchell, Purcell, Forsyth, Barry, Hunter, Simpson & Moore, 2020).…”