Fitness for Life Comprehensive School Health Program: Year One Results

Background/Purpose: The Fitness for Life Project is aimed at improving healthy behavior adoption by members of a rural Southwestern U.S. community. In year one, two schools were targeted to begin efforts in creating healthy and active school cultures involving the following components: (a) classroom teachers adding physical activity (PA) breaks; (b) another day of Physical Education (PE) added each week targeting conceptual PE; (c) Wellness Weeks four times a year; and (d) healthy food service changes (Corbin et al., 2010). This study was informed by Gusky’s (1996, 2002) work on the importance of the teacher in school change along with Lohrmann’s Ecological model of Comprehensive School Health Programs.

Method: Participants were 20 teachers/school personnel who completed self-report surveys and participated in interviews (mostly Caucasian, 5 Hispanic, 1 Native American heritages). Participants were also 3-8th grade students who wore pedometers (SW 200 Digiwalkers) for five consecutive 24-hour periods and accelerometers (NL 1000) during PE classes, participated in interviews, and completed a knowledge test that has produced reliable and valid scores (Teatro, 2013); N=192; Female=82; 58% White, 29% Hispanic, 15% other 13%; BMI: M=20.30, SD=4.96).

Analysis/Results: Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and group mean comparisons. Qualitative data were analyzed using constant comparison. Trustworthiness was established through data triangulation, peer review, and negative case searches. Classroom teachers reported an average of 3-5 (SD=4.0) PA breaks/wellness week. Themes generated from all stakeholders included: (a) school health change successes (e.g., improved school lunches); (b) challenges (e.g., teachers’ time and skill); and (c) student buy in (e.g., students enjoyed the changes). At school 1 both boys and girls were significantly higher at midyear than baseline (F(1)= 223.88, p<.01). On average, boys were more active during PE classes than girls (F(1)= 25.44, p<.01). School 2 24-hour PA data suggested stable overall PA patterns across the year. Food service changes at school 1 resulted in students eating more fruits and vegetables at school. Students’ knowledge improvements averaged between 19-29% during the year.

Conclusions: This comprehensive model approach began to transform the culture of schools with students becoming more active and consuming more fruits and vegetables at school. Stakeholders indicated positive perceptions of the school health changes. More effort may need to be placed on influencing youth behaviors outside of the school setting. According to Gutsky’s principles, the project is providing all stakeholders with the positive reinforcements need to continue in the change effort.