The effect of health literacy‐grounded web‐based education on nutrition and exercise behaviours in adolescents: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

AimThe research was conducted to measure the effect of health literacy‐grounded web‐based education program on health literacy, nutrition and exercise behaviours in adolescents.BackgroundThe increasing prevalence of obesity in adolescents is explained by a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet. Health literacy is essential for adolescents to maintain their healthy behaviours.MethodsThe research was conducted as a parallel group randomized controlled trial. The study was completed by 114 adolescents (experimental = 42, control = 72). The Personal Information Form, the Health Literacy Scale for School‐Age Children and the Nutrition and Exercise Subscales were used to collect data. A web‐based education program was implemented. Two‐way mixed design ANOVA with Bonferroni test was used to examine the group, time and group * time interaction of the measurements.ResultsThere was no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups regarding health literacy level, nutrition and exercise behaviours pre‐test mean scores (p > 0.05). In the post‐test, the mean scores of health literacy and nutrition behaviours in the experimental group were higher than the control group (p < 0.001). However, there was no significant difference in exercise behaviours (p > 0.05). The power and effect size in mean scores changes for health literacy (99.8%, η2 = 0.039) and nutrition (99.8%, η2 = 0.039) were moderate.ConclusionThe study concluded that health literacy‐grounded web‐based education program increased the health literacy levels of adolescents and improved their nutritional behaviours; however, there was no sufficient change in exercise behaviours.