Abstract: The impacts of peer education on the left-behind children's physique and physical fitness through tracking the changes of related physiological indexes before and after the intervention of peer education.A comparative study was made on a cohort of 200 left-behind children at Jiefangyan School in Jiefangyan town,Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture.A 100-person experimental group and a 100-person control group were stochastically selected for the six-month study,where the former was provided with peer education plus regular education but the latter was provided only with regular education.The results showed little variation in the index of blood pressure,and no difference in height and weight in the two groups,which indicates that peer education has no more intervention than natural maturity in the children's growth of height and weight.But,indexes of vital capacity and chest circumference of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group (P>0.05).It can be concluded that with the intervention of peer education,the left-behind children can increase the lung capacity,and improve the pulmonary ventilation function through long-term regular scientific physical exercise.

Key words: peer education, left-behind children, physique, physical fitness