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

Abstract #115195

Katherine Keir and Karen Jacqueline Coleman, PhD. Graduate School of Public Health, San Diego State University, 4460 36th Street, apt D, San Diego, CA 92116, 415-235-7182, travelkat03@yahoo.com

Nearly one-third of minority children are at risk for overweight or obesity, while type 2 diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in adolescents. Poor health in youth is primarily attributed to a lack of regular physical activity and a diet low in fiber, fruits and vegetables, and high in calories. School health programs have the potential to engender healthy eating and activity behaviors, prevent disease, and promote lifelong good health. Individual, knowledge-based programs have met with limited success in changing youths' nutrition or activity behaviors. Interventions that change the school system, environment or policies have potential for more sustainable change. This project summarizes the literature to date on health programs in elementary, middle, and high school. Twenty-five programs, each including at least one school system, policy or environmental change, were identified in the literature for review. Findings are consolidated using Glasgow and colleagues' RE-AIM framework to evaluate effectiveness and dissemination program trials. RE-AIM produces an assessment score for each concept (Reach, Effectiveness/Efficacy, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance). Findings revealed the most successful programs trained food service staff regarding healthy meals while staying within budget, limited on-campus unhealthy foods, had high implementation rates, and had buy-in from school administrators. Reach and Adoption were not easily assessed as most studies in the literature are efficacy-based; it is thus recommended when using RE-AIM to evaluate efficacy studies, that only Implementation, Efficacy, and Maintenance be used. The findings from this study will enable future interventions to incorporate proven effective elements, thus increasing their potential for success.

Learning Objectives:

• List specific elements of school programs that have the most potential to create sustainable changes in students’ eating and activity behaviors;
• Identify successful school programs on which to model future programs to improve students’ eating and activity behaviors;
• Articulate the strengths and weaknesses of the RE-AIM program evaluation framework;
• Apply the RE-AIM framework for program evaluation to programs that merit its use.

Keywords: School-Based Programs, Evaluation

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.

Recorded presentation