Fisioterapia na saúde do escolar: educação postural como estratégia de promoção de saúde na escola

Abstract

The promotion of health in the school context is a constant concern among professionals, sincE the school presents as a reference point for the concepts and behaviors acquisition necessary for good self-care practices in health. This research aimed to evaluate the effects of a health promotion intervention, through postural education, geared toward students from elementary school. The research was developed with 32 students of the 6th year from a public school in the city of Uruguaiana / RS, and was designed in four stages. I) application of an initial questionnaire (pre-test), to evaluate the presence of musculoskeletal pain and the students' knowledge about appropriate posture habits; II) interventions related to postural education; III) collection of anthropometric data, backpack weighing and calculation of the Body Mass Index (BMI); and IV) reapplication of the initial questionnaire (post-test). The collected data were tabulated and expressed as mean or frequency or analyzed by the Wilcoxon test. The results indicated that all students presented painful complaints in various situations of daily school life. Concerning the weight of the backpack, five students presented backpacks weighing more than 10% of their body weight. Regarding the correct postural habits, it was observed that the index of correct answers of the students increased after postural education intervention. In conclusion, our data indicated that there has been an increase in students' knowledge about postural care measures, and provide subsidies to adoption of positive attitudes to minimize the risks of musculoskeletal injuries and postural changes.