The questionnaire was distributed to 287 sixth-grade students in Japanese elementary schools, and responses from 245 students were collected (85.4% response rate). After excluding incomplete responses from three students, an analysis was performed on the responses of 242 students (84.3% valid response rate). Of the respondents, 122 were boys, 100 were girls, and 20 did not provide gender information.
Habits of daily living and health status
Students who responded as “very healthy” or “healthy” accounted for 89.3% of the respondents, while 78.9% replied that they were “very happy” or “feel calm.” For sleep, the mean duration is 8.5 hours, and while 24.8% responded that they “slept soundly,” 35.1% responded that they “cannot sleep.” Only two students reported skipping breakfast. Of the respondents, 81.8% ate afternoon snacks, while 23.1% reported eating late-night snacks. The quantity of dietary intake during lunch tended to be lower than that during dinner, and appetite showed a similar trend. Regarding excretion, 86.8% of the students reported a defecating frequency once per day or two, and the majority reported a normal stool. Regarding exercise, 48.4% reported sports activities in clubs or outside the school.
Awareness of behavioral and health contingencies
Regarding the questions relating to diet and health contingencies, 90.5% responded that “I think eating is important for health,” while very few chose the other four options including negative diet and health contingencies, accounting for less than 6.1%. Regarding the questions about defecation and health contingencies, 48.8% responded that “I think defecation is related to health”; a higher percentage of students (61.6%) responded to the awareness about regularity by selecting “'It is necessary to defecate once a day.” The negative response to the contingency “If I do not feel pain, it does not matter if I do not defecate” was cited by 7.0% of the respondents. The response to the awareness of exercise and health contingencies' exercise is necessary for health was cited by 74.4% of the respondents. Negative responses to exercise and health contingencies were cited by 0.4% of the respondents (Table 1).
Choice of healthy behavior
The proportions of children's behavioral choices regarding diet, excretion, and exercise are shown in Table 2. For diet, about half of the children selected “I eat nutritionally balanced foods” and “eat meals at a fixed time,” while for excretion, 19.0% selected “I go to the toilet at a fixed time every day.” For exercise, 55.4% responded, “I exercise outside as much as possible.”
Association of awareness on daily living habits and health contingencies with a healthy behavior choice
For each of the areas of diet, excretion, and exercise, a chi-square test was conducted by dividing the respondents into two groups based on the presence or absence of awareness of the associated health contingencies and the presence or absence of healthy behavior choice.
Diet
Awareness of diet and health contingencies was significantly associated with the presence or absence of a “nutritionally balanced diet” (χ2=4.8, p<0.05). In the group with an awareness of the contingency, many exhibited healthy behavior choices.
Excretion
Awareness of excretion and health contingencies was found to be significantly associated with the presence or absence of “I eat a lot of vegetables” (χ2=4.5, p<0.05). Many students in the group were aware of the contingency and reported eating many vegetables. However, there is no association between awareness of the contingency and the idea that it is necessary to defecate once a day. Conversely, the idea that it is necessary to defecate once a day is found to be significantly associated with the reported status of once-a-day defecation (χ2=25.9, p<0.01).
Exercise
The awareness of exercise and health contingencies is found to be significantly associated with the behavior of “I do not perform the physical activity as much as possible to avoid getting tired” (χ2=6.5, p<0.05). Further, the response to not performing physical activities was significantly lower in the group supporting the idea that exercise is essential for health.
The effect of awareness of contingencies and healthy behavioral choice on the status of health
Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed using the presence or absence of awareness of behavioral and health contingencies and the presence or absence of healthy behavioral choices as independent variables. Moreover, health status, physical health level, and mental health level are dependent variables to analyze health status associated with awareness and behavior.
Diet
Two-way ANOVA was performed using awareness of contingencies and choice of “nutritionally balanced diet” behavior as independent variables, and quantity of dietary intake, appetite, physical health level, and mental health level as dependent variables. The quantity of dietary intake was rated from 3 (large amount) to 1 (small amount). While appetite was rated from 4 for “excellent” to 1 for “none at all.” The results indicated no significant differences in the quantity of dietary intake, but appetite showed significant differences among breakfast, lunch, and dinner (the corresponding results in that order are F=4.28, p<0.05; F=8.09, p<0.01; F=5.70, p<.01). Of the groups with awareness on contingency, the group selecting “balanced diet” shows a significantly high appetite.
Physical health level was rated from 4 for “very healthy” to 1 for “unwell,” while mental health level was rated from 4 for “very happy” to 1 for “depressed.” The results indicate that awareness of contingencies has significant differences depending on the mental health level (F=4.73, p<0.05). Of the groups with awareness on contingency, mental health level and physical health level are high for the group selecting “balanced diet.”
Excretion
Two-way ANOVA was performed using awareness of contingencies and choice of “I go to the toilet at a fixed time every day” behavior as independent variables, and frequency of defecation, physical health level, and mental health level as dependent variables. The frequency of defecation was rated from 4 for “once a day” to 1 for “often no defecation in four days or more.” The results indicated no significant differences in any of the options.
Exercise
As for the benefits of exercise, dietary intake, appetite, physical health level, and mental health level were targeted. A similar two-way ANOVA was performed using awareness of contingencies and the presence or absence of a choice of “exercise outside” behavior as independent variables and the benefits (positive consequences) as dependent variables. The results indicate significant differences for breakfast volume, dinner volume, late-night snacks volume, lunch appetite, and dinner appetite (the corresponding results in that order are: F=3.76, p>0.05; F=2.71, p<0.05; F=3.16, p<0.05; F=4.73, p<0.01; F=4.70, p<0.01). Of these, breakfast volume, afternoon snack volume, and late-night snack volume showed significant interactions (F=7, 36, p<0.01; F=5.26, p<0.05; F=5.50, p<0.05). Figure 1 shows the interaction impact on breakfast volume due to the presence or absence of “awareness of exercise affecting health” and the presence or absence of “exercise outside as much as possible.” Among the groups with an awareness of contingencies, the breakfast intake volume was higher in the group selecting “I exercise outside as much as possible.” The group not selecting “perform physical activities outdoors as much as possible” behavior shows a lower breakfast intake volume.
Conversely, among the groups without awareness of contingencies, breakfast intake volume was lower in the group selecting “perform physical activities outdoors as much as possible” behavior. The group not selecting “perform physical activities outdoors as much as possible” behavior shows a higher breakfast intake volume. The contradictory association between this choice of behavior and the quantity of dietary intake observed in the group without awareness of contingencies was observed for afternoon snacks and late-night snacks.