Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #114793

Cary K. Hardwick, MA, MSN, MS¹, Mary L. Greaney, PhD¹, Solomon Mezgebu, MSc², A.C. Lindsay, DDS, MPH, DrPH³, Maria Bettencourt, MPH², and Karen E. Peterson, ScD, RD¹. (1) School of Public Health, Harvard University, Department of Nutrition, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, 617-432-5518, chardwic@hsph.harvard.edu, (2) Bureau of Family and Community Health, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 250 Washington Street, 4th Floor, Boston, MA 02108-4619, (3) Research Associate Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Bldg. II, Room 304, Boston, MA 02115

Schools are an ideal setting to mount interventions to reduce overweight and sedentary behavior in youth while promoting physical activity. After a health promotion program is proven to be efficacious, however, issues of dissemination and sustainability need to be considered. Wide spread implementation of successful interventions may aid in changing nutrition and physical activity behaviors, and, ultimately, overweight prevalence. Over the next three years, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts will fund Enhanced Healthy Choices (EHC), which combines three positively evaluated school-based, nutrition and physical activity intervention programs (Planet Health, Healthy Choices, and School Health Index). EHC will be implemented in participating schools (n=120) across Massachusetts. EHC includes programs before and/or after school, a curriculum component, and a school policy and environmental assessment. In-depth interviews (n=21) were conducted to explore the experience and perceptions of administrators, coordinators and teachers involved in the programs being incorporated into EHC. The feasibility of implementing and sustaining EHC also was discussed. Participants felt that combining the three programs is feasible due to their similar goals, but that a key leader and a team would be needed to implement and sustain the program. Participants noted that support from the administration, staff, teacher, parent, and food service is needed. Additionally, participants spoke of needing resources including funding, program training and ongoing technical assistance. Noted barriers include lack of time, limited funds, and competing priorities. This research provides a prototype for assessing organizational readiness to adopt efficacious school-based, multi-component interventions addressing youth overweight.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify three barriers to implementing a large school-wide intervention to promote physical activity and good nutrition.
• Understand the qualitative methods that can be used to assess organizational readiness in adopting a multi-component intervention.

Keywords: School-Based Programs, Obesity

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.