Early Outcomes of State Public Health Actions' School Nutrition Strategies.

Abstract

IntroductionSince 2013, the State Public Health Actions to Prevent and Control Diabetes, Heart Disease, Obesity and Associated Risk Factors and Promote School Health (State Public Health Actions) program has been implemented to support and reinforce healthy choices and healthy behaviors among the US population. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Population Health’s School Health Branch has been a critical component, ensuring that state health departments support schools in adopting nutrition standards and creating a supportive nutrition environment. The objective of this article was to describe early outcomes of the school nutrition strategies of State Public Health Actions.MethodsWe examined the extent of progress for short-term performance measures and for school nutrition evaluation questions, using data secured from 51 grantees through the performance measures database and state evaluation reports.ResultsDuring the first 4 years of the cooperative agreement, grantees demonstrated significant progress compared with year 2 for school nutrition performance measures. Collectively, grantees provided professional development and technical assistance to staff in 7,672 local education agencies and reached more than 29 million students. Success was also noted for several nutrition practices in schools.ConclusionThese early outcomes suggest that State Public Health Actions has had a positive impact on the nutrition environment of US schools. Systematically addressing areas for improvement could further expand the reach of these efforts during the remainder of the cooperative agreement.