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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Stephanie Vecchiarelli, EdD, MPH, CHES, Judith Siegel, PhD, MSHyg, Michael Prelip, MPH, DPA, Jenny Chang, MPH, and Tara Cox, MPH, RD. School of Public Health, UCLA, Box 95-1772, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, 310/267-2946, stephv@ucla.edu

Sixteen schools in a large, urban school district are participating in a worksite wellness study targeting obesity in school staff. Baseline data, including 24-hour dietary recall, level of physical activity, anthropometric measurements, health status, and psychosocial information were collected from 362 staff. In addition, social support, self-efficacy, and barriers to healthy eating and physical activity were assessed. School staff with higher BMI, waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio reported more perceived barriers to healthy eating, and were less confident in their ability to eat healthily than respondents with lower or normal anthropometric classifications. Using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), participants who were active had a higher level of perceived social support for physical activity, reported fewer barriers to participating in physical activity, and were more confident in their ability to be physically active than those who were inactive. Schools randomly designated as the intervention schools (n=8) were asked to form a staff wellness committee to develop nutrition and physical activity programs. Building on the baseline data, schools were able to tailor their programs to increase social support and self-efficacy and decrease barriers to healthy eating and physical activity. To date, schools have offered physical activity programs at the school site, organized healthy eating support groups, conducted physical activity contests, and provided healthier food alternatives for staff. This study demonstrates that school worksites are able to use data to tailor a wellness program to the needs of their staff, and emphasize the potential for replication in other worksites.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• List barriers and facilitators to healthy eating and physical activity in a school staff population.
• Describe how data can be used to tailor worksite wellness programs.

Keywords: Worksite, Nutrition

Related Web page: www.ph.ucla.edu/chs/nfsc

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Handout (.ppt format, 114.0 kb)