Health actions and health promotion among a sample of rural Black South African children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the daily activities that young South African children perceived as health related activities. The sample included 117 children (33, ages 5–7 years; 44, ages 8–10 years; and 40, ages 11–12 years) chosen by two-stage cluster sampling in a rural community of the central region of the Northern Province. Results indicated that the most important health actions around healthy eating were, 'washing hands'; around dressing, 'wearing warm clothes'; around keeping clean, 'washing body and hair'; going to sleep, 'washing body'; activity at school, 'read and write'; recess and leisure time, 'playing football or netball'. Personal hygiene (washing, brushing teeth, etc.) was the most common health action of the children around healthy eating, keeping clean and going to sleep. Some health actions were insufficiently mentioned, brushing teeth for example and some wrongly mentioned such as eating porridge before going to sleep. This study showed that children have insufficient knowledge and understanding about health related activities. Results suggest that health professionals and teachers should consider providing more information about health related activities for young children.