Action Research on Nutritional Status Report for Elementary

Republic of the Philippines Department of Education Region IV-A CALABARZON Division of Cavite City Cavite City

EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES June 27, 2012 ACTION RESEARCH ON THE USE OF MICROSOFT EXCEL PROGRAM FOR COMPUTING AND CLASSIFYING BODY MASS INDEX (BMI) FOR THE NUTRITIONAL STATUS REPORT FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AT DEPED CAVITE CITY

ABSTRACT The nutrition of the child is one of the most important aspects that enable them to study properly and perform their duties within and outside of the school. Health once neglected, can greatly affect the performance of the child in his class. Attendance particularly on absences is the most evident result of malnutrition in students. One of the programs of DepEd is the school feeding program for undernourished students. The student that is classified as “wasted” or “severely wasted” are the priority target of this program. The tool used to determine if the student is undernourished is the nutritional status report. This survey is performed from the beginning (June to July) and end (February to March) of the school year. This study has determined the effectiveness of the computer program developed in Microsoft Excel that will automatically compute the age, body mass index (BMI) and

classify it according to the five categories namely; severely wasted, wasted, normal, overweight and obese.

I.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY The study on the nutritional status of Filipino public school children can be traced back on May 19, 1979 as indicated in the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) memorandum no. 130 s. 1979 for which the School Health and Nutrition Centre conducted a research on the nutritional status of Filipino children throughout the thirteen (13) regions as the basis and evaluation of the impact of the School Health Nutrition Program. They assess the nutritional status of the children using their height and weight. On February 7, 1980, a follow-up study was conducted in lieu with the MEC memorandum no. 33 s. 1980. The objective is to compare the nutritional status taken from June 1979 and March 1980 still by getting the height and weight of the student. On July 3, 1995, in virtue of the DECS Order no. 41 s. 1995, the Department adopted the revised 1985 Weight and Height Reference Standard for Filipino Children developed by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute and the Philippine Pediatrics Society in the assessment of the nutritional status of the children, in order to assess the magnitude of malnutrition in a community/population group. On March 25, 2003, the Department released DepEd Order no. 21 s. 2003 entitled “The use of the International Reference Standard (IRS) in determining the Nutritional Status (NS) of Filipino Children”. It states that the IRS shall be used to conduct the nutritional assessment of the children in which the nurses shall be fully responsible for the conduct of such assessment at the start (June to July) and end (February to March) of the school year. Teachers are enjoined to assist in the assessment, more specifically on the weight and height of children below 10 years of

age. The use of IRS in the assessment of Nutritional Status (NS) reflects the maximum growth potential of children without limiting the competitive potential within the boundaries of their country. The reports of the NS of children shall be submitted to the School Health and Nutrition Centre before the 15th of October for the baseline data; and 15th of April, of the following year for the endline data. The revised Nutritional Status Report Forms (NSRF) instructions on how to use the revised form and the International Growth Tables shall be used for ready reference and possible replication at the local level.

II.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The Division of Cavite City is composed of twelve (12) public elementary school and two (2) secondary schools. According to the interviews conducted on the division medical staff and selected teachers on both elementary and secondary schools, the researcher found out that the nutritional status report is quite a bothersome task to performed for two basic reason; (1) Computation is mostly done manually or by calculator and, (2) Classifying the BMI of the student is quite inconvenient for the teachers for they have to look on a table of values to determine the BMI classification of the student. Both accuracy and readiness of data is affected due to the constraints encountered in preparing the said report. The abovementioned problem has led the researcher to develop a computerbased program using Microsoft Excel that will automatically compute the age, body mass index (BMI), classifies and summarizes the BMI of the student.

III.

SCOPE AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY The study has been conducted on Porta Vaga Elementary School for the elementary level. The schools have been strategically selected for the researcher is the current parent supervisor/coordinator for the elementary school. Porta Vaga Elementary School consists of four hundred eighty three (483) students. The total number of teacher-respondent was sixteen (16) from the said school. All teacher-respondents have used the software program developed from Microsoft excel to determine the age, body mass index (BMI), classification and summary of the students’ BMI.

IV.

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS RELATED TO SURVEY

The instrument used in the data gathering is a questionnaire-checklist for the teacher-respondents. The questionnaire for the teacher-respondents contained three major parts: Part I is for the Teachers Profile. Part II which differentiate the duration or time taken by the respondent to finish the Nutritional Status Report using Manual, Semi-Manual and Computerized method Part III in which the respondents evaluated the effectiveness of the computer-based program in accomplishing the Nutritional Status report

Scale Interpretation of the Respondents Evaluation on the Computer-based program for accomplishing the Nutritional Status Report 4.51 - 5.00

Excellent

3.51 - 4.50

Very Good

2.51 - 3.50

Good

1.51 - 2.50

Fair

1.00 – 1.50

Poor

A. Teachers profile according to position/ designation

Teachers Profile according to Position/Designation Teacher II (4) 25%

Teacher I (7) 44%

Teacher III (4) 25%

Master Teacher (1) 6%

The above graph shows the distribution of teachers according to position/designation. It reveals that seven (7) or 44% are teacher I, while Teacher II and Teacher III position both have four (4) or 25% and only one (1) for the Master Teacher position.

B. Teachers profile according to length of service

Teachers Profile according to Length of Service 5 years and below(10) 62%

6 years and above (6) 38%

Graph B shows the teachers profile according to length of service. A total of ten (10) or 62% comprised the respondents with five (5) years and below when it comes to years of service while six (6) or 38% of them are already in the profession for more than six (6) years.

C. Teachers profile according to educational attainment

Teachers Profile according to Educational Attainment Bachelors Degree (10) 62%

With Masters Unit (6) 38%

Graph C, shows the teacher-respondents profile according to educational attainment. A total of ten (10) or 62% comprised the respondents with a Bachelors degree and six (6) or 38% of them are taking Masters degree courses and has acquire some educational units.

D. Duration for finishing the Nutritional Status Report using the manual method

Duration for finishing the Nutritional Status Report using the manual method

more than 4 days 100%

Graph D reveals the respondents perceived duration in finishing the Nutritional Status Report using the manual method. All of them answered that it will take them more than 4 days to finish the task due to some constraints like preparing the lesson plan, visual aids and other activities that may hinder them from finishing the report on a short period of time.

E. Duration for finishing the Nutritional Status Report using the Semi - manual method

Duration for finishing the Nutritional Status Report using the semi-manual method More than 4 days 81% 4 days 16%

3 Days 3%

Graph E shows the respondents perceived duration in finishing the Nutritional Status Report using semi-manual method or with the use of calculator. Still a large portion of the respondents (81%) says that it will take them more than 4 days to finish the report in spite the presence of the calculator to aid them in computing the necessary items for the report. But a few responded (16%) that they can finish the said report in four days time and 3% of them are confident that they can finish the report in 3 days. This may be due to their length of service and long exposure in performing the report that they already developed a pattern and strategy in producing the needed result for the report.

F. Duration for finishing the Nutritional Status Report using the computerbased program method

Duration for finishing the Nutritional Status Report using the computer-based program method Less than 1 hour (14) 87%

1 hour (2) 13%

Graph F reveals the respondents’ actual duration in performing the Nutritional Status Report using the researchers developed program using Microsoft Excel. A total of fourteen (14) or 87% of the respondents finished the report in less than 1 hour and two (2) or 13% of the respondents finished the report in just 1 hour. This can be attributed to the software program because it automatically computes the actual age and body mass index (BMI) of the student and at the same time it automatically categorize the BMI unlike before that the teachers have to look on a table of values and locate the category of BMI that they have obtained from the students. Furthermore, the software program also summarizes the total breakdown of the BMI that makes it easy to produce the Baseline and Endline or the Division Summary for the Nutritional Status Report.

G. Respondents perceived effectiveness of the computer based program for accomplishing the Nutritional Status Report

Indicators

Mean

SD

Description

1. The computer-based program is user-friendly or easy to use

4.81

0.397

Excellent

2. It reduces time and effort in finishing the nutritional status report

4.88

0.336

Excellent

3. The results are accurate including the age, BMI and BMI classification

5.00

0.000

Excellent

4. Easy to identify the students with nutrition deficiency

5.00

0.000

Excellent

5. I’ll recommend this program to other teachers

5.00

0.000

Excellent

4.94

0.150

Excellent

OVERALL MEAN Legend: Mean Range 4.51 - 5.00 3.51 - 4.50 2.51 - 3.50 1.51 - 2.50 1.00 – 1.50

Description Strongly Agree Agree Uncertain Disagree Strongly Disagree

Interpretation Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor

The above table reveals that the overall mean of effectiveness of the computer based program for accomplishing the Nutritional Status Report as perceived by the teachers was Excellent (

= 4.94).

As the table shows that the teacher respondents perceived the program that is easy to use obtained a mean of (

) = 4.81; while they also believed that the program

really reduces time and effort to finish the said report

= 4.88; The last 3 indicators

that includes the accuracy of the data generated, identifying the student with nutrition

deficiency and recommending the program to other teachers all obtained a mean of (

)

= 5.00 which was rated as excellent.

V.

SUMMARY OF DATA INTERPRETATION

The abovementioned results and evaluation confirms the hypothesis why the teachers finds difficulty in finishing the Nutritional Status Report is that the manual process really takes too much of their time and effort, even with the presence of machines like calculator still their other task like lesson planning, preparing visual aids and formulating strategies hinders them to immediately finish the said report. On the other hand, the results also proved the effectiveness of the computerbased program developed in Microsoft Excel. Most of the respondents finish the task in less than an hour. This can be attributed to the software program because it automatically computes the actual age and body mass index (BMI) of the student and at the same time it automatically categorize the BMI unlike before that the teachers have to look on a table of values and locate the category of BMI that they have obtained from the students. Furthermore, the software program also summarizes the total breakdown of the BMI that makes it easy to produce the Baseline and Endline or the Division Summary for the Nutritional Status Report.

VI.

ALTERNATIVE COURSES OF ACTION

1. The program must be implemented to replace the old method of producing the report to enhance productivity of teachers and to minimize the time and effort in accomplishing the said report. 2. A seminar or meeting must be conducted in the division to disseminate the information to all the elementary schools on how to use the computer-based program so they can also benefit from the features of the program. 3. It is recommended that this study be replicated in other schools or division to validate the results.

Dear Respondents, Please share some information about yourself. The data will be a great help in my research study. Please answer all the questions below by checking the column that corresponds to your opinion. Your answer will be treated confidentially and that your name will not be specified. Thank you, The Researcher I.

Teachers Profile Place a check (√ ) that corresponds to your answer

1. Position / Designation ( ( ( ( (

) ) ) ) )

-

Teacher I Teacher II Teacher III Master Teacher Head Teacher

( ( ( ( (

) ) ) ) )

-

below 5 years 6 to 10 years 11 to 15 years 16 to 20 years 21 years and above

3. Educational Attainment ( ( ( ( (

) ) ) ) )

-

Bachelor degree Units in Masters Degree Masters Degree Units in Doctors Degree Doctors Degree

2. Years in service:

II.

Comparison of Manual, Semi-Manual accomplishing the nutritional status report

and

computerized

method

of

Provided that you do your regular routine as a teacher and assigned to submit the nutritional status report comprising 20 male and 20 female students and …. 1. If you are to manually compute the age, BMI and classify the students BMI, how long will it take you?

( ) -

1 day

( ) -

2 days

( ) -

3 days

( ) -

4 days

( ) -

more than 4 days

2. If you are to use a calculator to compute the age, BMI and classify the students BMI, how long will it take you?

( ) -

1 day

( ) -

2 days

( ) -

3 days

( ) -

4 days

( ) -

more than 4 days

3. After using the software program, how long does it take you to finish the task of computing the age, BMI and classify the students BMI? ( ) -

Less than 1 hour

( ) -

I hour

( ) -

2 hours

( ) -

3 hours

( ) -

more than 3 hours

III.

Respondents Evaluation of the Computer-based program for the Nutritional Status Report

Directions: Please indicate your honest observation of the following statements obtained in your school by checking the number that corresponds to its presence following the scale below Legend:

5 – Strongly Agree 4 – Agree 3 – Uncertain 2 – Disagree 1 – Strongly Disagree

-

Indicators

Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor 5

4

3

2

1. The computer-based program is user-friendly or easy to use 2. It reduces time and effort in finishing the nutritional status report 3. The results are accurate including the age, BMI and BMI classification 4. Easy to identify the students with nutrition deficiency 5. I’ll recommend this program to other teachers

Comments/ Suggestions ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

1

ACTION RESEARCH ON THE USE OF MICROSOFT EXCEL PROGRAM FOR COMPUTING AND CLASSIFYING BODY MASS INDEX (BMI) FOR THE NUTRITIONAL STATUS REPORT FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS AT DEPED CAVITE CITY

RESEARCHER:

JESTER C. NICODEMUS DIVISION ICT COORDINATOR DEPED CAVITE CITY July 3, 2012

BIBLIOGRAPHY Memorandum DepEd Order no. 21, s. 2003, “The use of the International Reference Standard (IRS) in Determining the Nutritional Status (NS) of Filipino Children”, March 25, 2003. DECS Order no. 41, s. 1995, “Utilizing the 1995 FNRI-PPS Tables in Determining the Nutritional Status of School Children”, July 3, 1995. MEC Memorandum no. 33, s. 1980, “Survey on the Nutritional Status of Filipino Public School Children.”, February 7, 1980 MEC Memorandum no. 130, s. 1979, “A Study on the Nutritional Status of Filipino Public School Children.”, May 17, 1979