Practice of Health Promoting School among Selected Schools of Kathmandu Metropolitan City

Abstract

Introduction: Health-promoting school (HPS) is a concept to protect and promote the health of students. Schools in Nepal are mostly concentrated in the capital city comprising most of the private schools. Furthermore, the contribution of the government of Nepal in the health sector is minimal, and to this end, HPS plays an essential role in improving health conditions. Therefore, the aim of the study was to assess the the practice of health-promoting schools in selected schools of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

Methods: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional study among 61 participants from 61 schools which were selected using a convenience sampling technique. The target population included the head of the schools, vice-principal, or teachers. Ethical approval for the conduction of the study was taken from the Institutional Review Committee whereas verbal and written consent was obtained from the participants. A structured questionnaire and checklist were prepared which was based on World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on health-promoting schools. The collected data was entered and analyzed using SPSS.

Results: We found out that the majority (73.8%) of respondents were male belonging to the 36-50 years age group. Despite the fact that most respondents had never heard of HPS, the health promotion initiatives in those schools were found to be effective (63.8 %). Likewise, in comparison to types of schools, public schools (61.1%) followed better practices of health promotion than private schools.

Conclusions: Private schools have good indicators of components like health policies, the physical environment, and the social environment. Likewise, public schools consist of better practice components like community relationships and school health services.