JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The burden of poverty-related infectious diseases remains high in low- and middle-income countries, while non-communicable diseases are rapidly gaining importance. To countermeasure this dual disease burden, the KaziBantu project aims at improving and promoting health literacy as a means for a healthy and active lifestyle. The project implements a school-based health intervention package, consisting of physical education, moving-to-music and health- and nutrition education lessons from the KaziKidz toolkit. It is complemented by the KaziHealth workplace health intervention program for teachers.

Objective:

The goal of the KaziBantu project is to assess the impact of a school-based health intervention package on risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), health behaviors and psychosocial health in primary schoolchildren in disadvantaged communities in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Additionally, we aim to test a workplace health intervention for teachers.

Methods:

A randomized controlled trial will be conducted in eight schools. Approximately 1,000 grade 4-6 schoolchildren, aged 9-13 years, and approximately 60 teachers will be recruited during a baseline survey in early 2019. For schoolchildren, the study is designed as a 9-month cluster-randomized controlled trial (KaziKidz intervention), while for teachers, a 6-month intervention phase (KaziHealth intervention) is planned. After randomization, four of the eight schools will receive the education program, while the other schools will serve as the control group. Intervention schools are further randomized to the different combinations of two additional intervention components, teacher workshops and teacher coaching.

Results:

This study builds on local evidence and offers the possibility of providing new evidence on health intervention responses to non-communicable disease risk factors in school settings as a basis for future controlled studies that will enable comparisons amongst marginalized communities between South Africa and other African countries.

Conclusions:

The KaziKidz teaching material is a holistic educational and instructional tool designed for primary school teachers in low-resource settings and it is in line with South Africa’s Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). The ready-to-use lessons and assessments within KaziKidz should facilitate the use and implementation of the teaching material. Furthermore, the KaziHealth interventions should empower teachers to take care of their health through knowledge gains regarding disease risk factors, physical activity, fitness, psychosocial health and nutrition indicators. Teachers as role models will be able to promote better health behaviors and encourage a healthy, active and inspiring environment for children at school. We conjecture that improved health and wellbeing increase teachers’ productivity with trickle down effects on the children they teach and train. Clinical Trial: www.isrctn.com; identifier: ISRCTN18485542 (date assigned: 11 July 2018).