This study aimed at performing measurement and comparative analysis of health status and health behavior among 101 children in grandparent-grandchild family and 119 in normal family, who were fourth-, fifth-, or sixth-graders from 24 elementary school...
This study aimed at performing measurement and comparative analysis of health status and health behavior among 101 children in grandparent-grandchild family and 119 in normal family, who were fourth-, fifth-, or sixth-graders from 24 elementary schools in N city, North Jeolla Province, in order to provide basic data to develop a health promotion and improvement program for children in grandparent-grandchild family.
The data were collected from April 2 to 25, 2007 using a measuring tool composed of 21 questions about the condition of physical health, 16 about the condition of mental health, and 30 about health behavior.
The data went through frequency analysis, percentage, cross-tabulation analysis, X²-test, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Duncan post-test, and Pearson's correlation coefficient.
The results of this study are as follows:
1. As for health status of children in grandparent-grandchild family and those in normal family, the former (3.29) showed lower health status than the latter (3.48), which was statistically significant (t=-3.05, p=.003).
2. As for health behavior of children in grandparent-grandchild family and those in normal family, the former (2.84) showed lower health behavior than the latter (3.14), which was statistically significant (t=-4.70, p=.000). There were significant differences in all sub-areas of daily living habits (p=.000), accident prevention (p=.000), contagious disease prevention (p=.000), and mental health (p=.008).
3. As for correlation between health status and health behavior among children in grandparent-grandchild family and those in normal family, the higher health status, the higher health behavior among both the former (r=.239, p=.016) and the latter (r=.510, p=.000), showing statistically significant positive correlation between health status and health behavior.
4. As for comparison of health status and health behavior between children in grandparent-grandchild family and those in normal family by general characteristics, there were statistically significant differences in health status among children in normal family by living standards (F=4.37, p=.015) and in health behavior by father's educational level (F=3.35, p=.039): children whose father was a high school graduate showed significantly higher health behavior than those whose father was a middle school graduate or below.
There were significant differences in health status of children in grandparent-grandchild family by causes of grandparent-grandchild family (F=2.76, p=.032) and support system (F=2.31, p=.040): dual-income family had higher health status than parents' divorce in terms of causes of grandparent-grandchild family and siblings and religious persons had higher health status than friends in terms of support system. There were significant differences in health behavior by father's educational level (F=7.99, p=.001), father's occupation (F=3.00, p=.036), and causes of grandparent-grandchild family (F=2.48, p=.049): it was higher for high school graduates and college graduates or over than for middle school graduates or below in terms of father's educational level, it was higher for professionals and managers than for farmers in terms of father's occupation, and it was higher for economic reasons and dual-income family than for parents' runaway in terms of causes of grandparent-grandchild family.
To put the results together, it is necessary to make a scheme to improve health behavior practice since children in grandparent-grandchild family were at the lower level of health status and health behavior than those in normal family. It is also necessary to develop and continuously implement a health promotion program in consideration of family-related characteristics since health status and health behavior among children in grandparent-grandchild family are associated with parents' academic background and occupation, reasons for causing such type of family, support system, and so on.