Evaluation of West Virginia local wellness policies

Background: The Child Nutrition and Reauthorization Act CNRA) of 2004 required districts participating in the USDA school meals program to develop a local wellness policy (LWP).

Significance: LWPs are a mechanism for addressing childhood obesity through school-based nutrition and physical activity (PA) programs.

Purpose: This paper summarizes the findings from an evaluation of West Virginia's 55 county LWPs and examines superintendent reports of LWP implementation and quality.

Method: Each LWP was independently evaluated by three reviewers using a 55-item measure with 12 subscales: CRNA goals, nutrition guidelines, parent nutrition, school meals, vending, fundraising & rewards, student physical education (PE), school based PA, PE/PA for parents, health promotion, policy assessment & evaluation, and assessment data utilization. Composite scores were calculated by totaling the number of criterion items mentioned in LWPs.

Results: Total scores ranged from 24-87, with an average of 59. Sub-scale scores were highest for CRNA goals and school meals and lowest for PE/PA programs for parents/community and utilization of assessment data. When superintendents were asked to rate the quality of LWP components, more than 70% indicated nutrition education, PE, nutrition guidelines, and PA components were good or excellent, while more than 60% rated parent nutrition education, parent PA/PE and staff wellness components to be fair or poor. Correlations between LWP subscale ratings and superintendent component ratings were not significant.

Conclusions: LWP evaluations identified key areas where policies can be strengthened to support childhood obesity prevention. Implications of the lack of correspondence between superintendent ratings and policy evaluations are discussed.