Establishing a Baseline Measure of School Wellness-Related Policies Implemented in a Nationally Representative Sample of School Districts

Nancy D Brener,Jamie F Chriqui,Terrence P O'Toole,Marlene B Schwartz,Tim Mcmanus

doi:10.1016/j.jada.2011.03.016

Abstract

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 required school districts to establish a local school wellness policy by the first day of the 2006-2007 school year. To provide a baseline measure of the extent to which wellness-related policies were implemented in school districts nationwide in 2006, this study analyzed data from the 2006 School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS). SHPPS used a cross-sectional design to measure policies and practices among a nationally representative sample of 538 public school districts. The authors applied a standardized wellness policy coding system to the data by matching each element to relevant questions from SHPPS and calculated the percentage of school districts meeting each element in the coding system. Statistical analyses included calculation of 95% confidence intervals for percentages and mean number of elements met in each area. In 2006, none of the districts met all elements included in the coding system for local wellness policies. In addition, the percentage of districts meeting each element varied widely. On average, districts met the greatest number of elements in the area of nutrition education and the least number of elements in the area of physical activity. By applying a coding system for district policies to an existing dataset, this study used a novel approach to determine areas of strength and weakness in the implementation of local school wellness-related policies in 2006.

Highlights

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 (PL 108-265, Section 204) required school districts participating in the National School Lunch Program or other child nutrition programs to establish a local school wellness policy by the first day of the 2006-2007 school year [1]
In the area of nutrition education, 14.6% of districts met all four elements that could be matched to School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) questions
Eight elements related to standards for USDA child nutrition programs and meals were matched to SHPPS questions, but no district met more than six elements

Summary

Introduction

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 (PL 108-265, Section 204) required school districts participating in the National School Lunch Program or other child nutrition programs to establish a local school wellness policy by the first day of the 2006-2007 school year [1]. Researchers from Action for Healthy Kids collected policies from a convenience sample of 256 districts of varying sizes from all states except Hawaii [3] They compared the policies to the federal legislation and to the Action for Healthy Kids’ Wellness Policy Fundamentals, a tool created to guide districts on the development and evaluation of policies [10]. In the Schwartz and Chriqui studies, the coding system used was designed to be applied to the local school board’s written policies and procedures and to any associated implementation rules or regulations developed by district superintendents [6,11] These documents usually can be obtained from school district offices or web sites. The authors used the original coding system rather than the enhanced version because the existing data did not provide information on how policies might vary by grade level

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion