Impact of school policy on risk factors for youth obesity

Introduction. This research uses existing public health surveillance data to evaluate the impact of state and federal policy mandates on changes in school policies and practices for physical activity and nutrition (PAN), and to assess the extent to which these policies and practices influence healthy youth behaviors.

Methods. This natural experiment examines the impact of state and federal policy mandates in Washington and Oregon. We examine changes in school policies, and determine the extent to which students' PAN behaviors are associated with school PAN or wellness mandates, focusing on differences in race/ethnicity and socioeconomic characteristics. Our design is a double-pretest non-equivalent groups design with four statewide biennial assessments of individual-level student behaviors and building-level policies in middle and high schools in both states. We will present preliminary results from years 2002, 2004, and 2006.

Results. Preliminary results on Washington 8th and 10th graders show that written nutrition standards, reduced access to competitive foods, and administrators' commitment to school nutrition are associated with higher fruit and vegetable consumption and a decrease in soda consumption at school.

Discussion. This study elucidates the relationship between mandates for policy change and implementation of policies and practices; the extent to which PAN policies are associated with student behavior change; and how school and student characteristics, particularly those schools and students at the highest risk for obesity, are associated with policy implementation. Because other states employ similar surveys to collect youth and school data, impacts of policy initiatives across states could be evaluated using this approach.