Abstract:

Given that lifestyle illnesses are impacting a growing segment of the population at an increasingly younger age, it is crucial to prioritise the cultivation of a healthy lifestyle among children during primary school education. Alongside the rising prevalence of obesity and diabetes among youngsters, bad posture has emerged as a significant issue. Insufficient physical exercise and improper body posture while standing, walking, and sitting might increase the likelihood of musculoskeletal injuries, osteoarthritis, discomfort, and diminished daily functionality.

In order to cultivate enduring health behaviours in society, it is imperative to start from the early stages of formal schooling. An effective approach to do this is to seamlessly integrate health-promoting material into the curriculum of different academic disciplines. For instance, including health-related terminology when teaching a foreign language or designing math problems that involve sports-related calculations. Another crucial factor is the collaboration between teachers and the home environment, ensuring that all the child's caretakers consistently communicate the same information as the educators. By incorporating healthy behaviours into family routines, they could reinforce the message and theoretical knowledge imparted by school teachers.

To enhance collaboration with parents, we created the Parents' Body Posture Literacy Questionnaire (PBPLQ) as a tool for devising effective tactics. Given that the questionnaire was developed collaboratively by academics from Poland and Iran, we made efforts to ensure its cross-cultural applicability. The BPLQ questionnaire comprises two primary sections, complemented by a metric. There are eight assignments in the first section.

Within each survey, participants are instructed to:
(1) determine which of the three visually depicted silhouettes represents an atypical body position;
(2) label the anomaly by selecting one of the four options provided;
(3) correctly indicate one of the four statements that accurately describes the identified abnormal posture.

The second section of the questionnaire evaluates understanding of health-promoting behaviours and comprises eight activities. For each assignment, the participant is required to:
(1) select one of three silhouettes that accurately portrays a correct posture habit;
(2) choose one of four sentences to provide a justification for their prior decision.

In order to ensure the questionnaire's cross-cultural compatibility, we ran a pilot study with parents who spoke Polish, English, and Farsi. The final version of the questionnaire, which was validated in Polish, incorporated suggestions and comments provided by parents. The silhouettes depict a gender-neutral individual with indeterminate age and attire, showcasing various body postures and postural patterns. The purpose of the questionnaire is not to categorise parental knowledge as either positive or negative, but to obtain guidance on how to develop educational programmes that involve parents in instilling in the younger generation the belief that maintaining proper posture is an essential aspect of personal hygiene and contributes to enhanced overall health and wellbeing.

Keywords:

Health education, primary school, body posture, well-being.