Introduction: Lack of participation of asthmatic children in physical activity negatively impacts these children’s mental and physical health. Asthmatic children are more likely to be obese, have higher levels of emotional difficulties and struggle with low self-esteem. Lack of physical activity leads also to aerobic deconditioning which further exacerbates the asthma. Meanwhile, studies have shown that a significant proportion of the general population hold the notion that asthmatic children cannot exercise or play hard.
Objectives: This study aimed at determining the perceptions of parents and teachers on the participation of primary school children with asthma in physical education in Ndola. It is necessary to highlight the perceptions that parents and teachers have on this matter as they are most likely the adults in whose care children with asthma will be.
Methods: The study was conducted as a cross-sectional survey among parents and teachers of children attending selected primary schools in Ndola Urban. Self-administered questionnaires assessing the knowledge, practices and factors affecting practices of parents and teachers with regards to participation of asthmatic children in physical activity were distributed to the participants. The data were analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 26.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, III., USA).
Results: Data were collected from 205 participants (91 teachers and 114 parents). 63.5% were female and average age range was between 26-35 years. Among the parents, 49.1% had moderate knowledge and 40.4% had poor knowledge. Knowledge was not significantly associated with socio-demographic factors. Among the teachers 64.8% were moderately knowledgeable, 26.4% had good knowledge and 8.8% had poor knowledge. Having asthma or knowing someone with asthma were found to be significantly associated with knowledge levels among the teachers (P<0.05). Teachers who were themselves asthmatics or knew someone with asthma had better knowledge levels than those that did not. Most of the parents (45.6%) had poor practices while almost half (49.5%) of the teachers had average practices. The practices of parents were significantly associated with marital status (P<0.05). Married parents had a better practice score than those that were single or divorced. No significant associations were noted between practices of teachers and their socio-demographic factors
Conclusion: It has been concluded that perceptions of both parents and teachers on the participation of primary school children with asthma in PE is quite poor in Ndola. Efforts should be directed towards correctly informing these two groups of caretakers on the management of childhood asthma and allowance of physical activity in asthmatic children.
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