Are school food and activity policies effective? A statewide evaluation

Introduction: There is little research that examines school policies over time or the impact of policy on student diet and activity behaviors and weight outcomes. Because these linkages are not available nationally, deep dive evaluations of statewide surveillance data are necessary. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the rationale, conceptual model, methods and selected descriptive findings for the School Obesity-related Evaluation study (ScOPE).

Methods: ScOPE will use school-level data from the Minnesota School Health Profiles and student-level data from the Minnesota Student Survey to evaluate policy and practice trends over time and the association between school nutrition- and activity-related policies and student weight-related behaviors.

Results: A conceptual model will be presented that illustrates the project's policy evaluation approach of 1) monitoring school policies and practices over time and 2) linking student diet and activity behaviors and weight with their schools' policies/practices. Considerations of linking multiple datasets across time will be described. Lessons learned will be shared. Preliminary analyses using student 2010 data indicate that diet, activity and weight behaviors of Minnesota adolescents are similar to the rest of the US and school-level data suggest Minnesota schools are on average in the middle of the pack with respect to practices and policies.

Discussion: National, state and local entities have already engaged in obesity prevention initiatives based upon varying levels of evidence. Knowing whether policy efforts are effective is critically important. Other states may be able to conduct similar evaluations by combining existing data.