Orientaciones para la comunidad científica sobre el diseño, implementación y evaluación de intervenciones escolares sobre promoción de comportamientos saludables (Guidelines for the scientific community on the design, implementation, and evaluation of school-based interventions for promoting healthy behaviours)

Abstract

Despite the benefits of adopting a healthy lifestyle, a large percentage of young people do not meet the established recommendations for these health-related behaviors. Developing multiple health behavior interventions are, therefore, required. Although school has been considered an ideal setting to promote healthy lifestyles in children and adolescents, most school-based interventions reported small or non-significant effects, diminishing over time. Multilevel, multicomponent, and multiple behavior school programs have been identified as the most promising approaches for improving health-related behaviors. However, due to the great complexity in its application, there are numerous difficulties and challenges in its implementation and sustainability. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to provide eight methodological guidelines and/or reflections for the scientific community to improve the design, implementation, and evaluation of school-based interventions for promoting health-related behaviors. All of them are supported by the research literature and also by the experience developing school-based intervention programs. We hope that this manuscript provide to the scientific community clear and precise indications of how this type of intervention should be addressed in order to maximize the effectiveness of school health interventions.