Establishing a baseline measure of school wellness-related policies implemented in a nationally representative sample of school districts
The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 required school districts to establish a local school wellness policy by the first day of the 2006-2007 school year. To provide a baseline measure of the extent to which wellness-related policies were implemented in school districts nationwide in 2006, this study analyzed data from the 2006 School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS). SHPPS used a cross-sectional design to measure policies and practices among a nationally representative sample of 538 public school districts. The authors applied a standardized wellness policy coding system to the data by matching each element to relevant questions from SHPPS and calculated the percentage of school districts meeting each element in the coding system.
In 2006, none of the districts met all elements included in the coding system for local wellness policies. In addition, the percentage of districts meeting each element varied widely. On average, districts met the greatest number of elements in the area of nutrition education and the least number of elements in the area of physical activity.
Full citation: Brener ND, Chriqui JF, O’Toole TP, Schwartz MB, McManus T. Establishing a baseline measure of school wellness-related policies implemented in a nationally representative sample of school districts. J Am Diet Assoc. 2011;111(6):894-901. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2011.03.016