SOURCE:

Faculty: Education
Department: Human Kinetics And Health Education

CONTRIBUTORS:

Maduekwe, T. C.
Okafor, J. O.

ABSTRACT:

Ageing is sure to come as long as one lives because it is inevitable in life. The normal process of ageing is not a disease and this goes to support the saying that ageing cannot be cured. Population ageing is a global phenomenon. The development of Healthy Ageing Intervention Instrument (HAII) is necessary to ensure that people enjoy healthy old age that is free from discomfort, diseases and disability. This study was designed to develop and validate a Healthy Ageing Intervention Instrument for secondary school teachers in Anambra State. To achieve the purpose, four research questions were posed for the study. The Research and Development design (R&D) was used for the study. The population consisted of nine thousand six hundred and twenty (9,620) secondary school teachers from both public and approved private secondary schools in the twenty one (21) existing local government areas of Anambra State. The sample consisted of six hundred and ninety (690) secondary school teachers from eighty two (82) sampled secondary schools in the State which were selected by multi stage sampling technique. The Healthy Ageing Intervention questionnaire designed by the researcher was the instrument for data collection. Sixty items reflecting the components of Healthy Ageing Intervention Instrument: physical exercises/recreational guidelines, nutrition guidelines, healthy behaviours/ positive life-style options and stress management strategies with the response pattern of very important = 5, important = 4, undecided = 3, less important = 2, and unimportant = 1. The final draft of the instrument used for main field – testing had a 4 – point scale of very frequent = 4, frequent = 3, rarely = 2 and never = 1. Cronbach’s alpha reliability test coefficient was used to establish the reliability. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to determine the Eigen values of each of the components of the instrument while parallels Analysis (PA) was applied to confirm the Eigen values. Means(ۨ xs ) and Standard Deviations (SDs) were used to establish the norms. The following among others were the major results of the study: seven items for physical exercises and recreational guidelines, 14 items in the nutrition guidelines, 15 items in the healthy behaviours and positive life-style options and nine items on stress management strategies; correlated above 0.5 minimum factor loading and were found appropriate for inclusion in the Healthy Ageing Intervention Instrument (HAII). The items in the instrument were all certified valid for inclusion in the Healthy Ageing Intervention Instrument (HAII). All the items in the four components of Healthy Ageing Intervention Instrument were found reliable. The norms for age, gender, marital status, educational qualifications and religious affiliation were all established for inclusion in the Healthy Ageing Intervention Instrument. The recommendation are that government and employers of teachers should provide recreational facilities for teachers to encourage them participate in healthy physical activities during their leisure hours. Attitudes of teachers toward health promotion strategies should be positive among others.