Non-profit Coordinated School Health Program Achieves Student Outcomes in Both Beginning and Experienced Schools

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of an ongoing health promotion program to sustain student outcomes over an extended period, and to determine if student outcomes are affected by the schools’ duration of program participation. Methods: The repeatmeasures study used secondary data from Healthy Schools Oklahoma for School Years 2016-2019. FITNESSGRAM  assessed changes in student fitness levels (N = 12,219); an electronic health survey assessed changes in knowledge and behaviors (N = 6840). McNemar tests examined change in the proportion of students reaching the healthy fitness zone (HFZ) for 6 FITNESSGRAM  tests, and the proportion of students with accurate knowledge or meeting dietary and physical activity recommendations. Poisson regression tested for change in student outcomes based on duration of program participation. Results: The proportion of students reaching HFZ increased for 5 of 6 fitness tests (p ≤ .004) and with accurate nutrition and physical education knowledge (p ≤ .009). We found statistically significant main effects for outcomes (p ≤ .016) and duration (p ≤ .030); there was no effect for the interaction. Conclusion: Students achieved similar gains in outcomes regardless of the schools’ duration of program participation.