(An item from the ISHN Member information service) A multiple case history and systematic review of adoption, diffusion, implementation and impact of provincial daily physical activity (DPA) policies in Canadian schools was reported in the April 2015 Issue of BMC Public Health. "The purpose of this study was to understand the processes underlying adoption and diffusion of Canadian DPA policies, and to review evidence regarding their implementation and impact. Publicly available documents posted on the internet were reviewed to characterize adopter innovativeness, describe the content of their DPA policies, and explore the context surrounding policy adoption. Diffusion of Innovations theory provided a conceptual framework for the analyses. A systematic literature search identified studies that had investigated adoption, diffusion, implementation or impact of Canadian DPA policies. Results Five of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories (38.5%) have DPA policies. Although the underlying objectives of the policies are similar, there are clear differences among them and in their various policy trajectories. Adoption and diffusion of DPA policies were structured by the characteristics and capacities of adopters, the nature of their policies, and contextual factors. Limited data suggests implementation of DPA policies was moderate but inconsistent and that Canadian DPA policies have had little to no impact on school-aged children’s PA levels or BMI." Read more>>
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(An item from the ISHN Member information service) A multi-level analysis Individual and school level correlates of moderate to vigorous physical activity among school-children in Germany was reported in the in April 2015 Issue of BMC Public Health. "We used data from the 2009/10 German Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (HBSC)-sample (n=5,005 students aged 11–15 years) including self-reported moderate to vigorous intensity PA as well as a variety of biological, demographic and behavioral correlates and matched them with school-level data from the national school principals’ HBSC questionnaire. We analyzed the associations of individual- and school-level correlates with MVPA by gender-specific multi-level regression. Results Only a small share of the overall variation in student’s PA was attributable to the school-level. Consequently, the associations of individual-level correlates with PA were stronger than those of the school-level. Our analysis revealed significant associations of individual-level (i.e. age, consumption of softdrinks, overweight) as well as school-level correlates (i.e. the availability of a football ground and a swimming pool) with MVPA. We also observed some gender-specific findings especially for the school level correlates. Cross-level interactions between individual- and school-level were not apparent." Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #2, 2015 of Health Education Research reports on a cohort study of the adoption of obesity prevention policies and practices by Australian primary schools: 2006 to 2013. The authors reports that "The prevalence of all four of the healthy eating practices and one physical activity practice significantly increased, while the prevalence of one physical activity practice significantly decreased. The adoption of practices did not differ by school characteristics. Government investment can equitably enhance school adoption of some obesity prevention policies and practices on a jurisdiction-wide basis. Additional and/or different implementation strategies may be required to facilitate greater adoption of physical activity practices. Ongoing monitoring of school adoption of school policies and practices is needed." A slide presentation of tghe results is available here. Read more from the abstract of the article here.
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) In a series of ISHN commentaries in this blog, we have discussed the limits of RCT-based studies and the mistaken notion that they represent the "gold standard" when considering modifications to practice. An article in Issue #2, 2015 of Health Education Research continues the discussion with a small scale study examining the evidence that is valued most and used by health promotion practitioners. The authors report that "Although there is a general consensus that adopting an evidence-based approach is necessary for practice, disagreement remains about what types of evidence practitioners should use to guide their work. An empirical understanding of how practitioners conceptualize and use evidence has been lacking in the literature. In this article, we explore (i) practitioners’ purposes for using evidence, (ii) types of evidence they valued, and (iii) qualities that made evidence useful for practice. 58 semi-structured interviews and 250 h of participant and non-participant observation were conducted with 54 health promotion practitioners working across New South Wales, Australia. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, and field notes were written during the observations; these were analysed using Grounded Theory methods. Practitioners used evidence for practical and strategic purposes, and valued four different types of evidence according to their relevance and usefulness for these purposes. Practitioners’ ideal evidence was generated within their practice settings, and met both substantive and procedural evaluation criteria. We argue that due to the complex nature of their work, practitioners rely on a diverse range of evidence and require organizational structures that will support them in doing so." Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) A high profile case of cyber bullying in Canada led to a series of in-depth interviews with police officers about their views and professional norms regarding bullying. An article in Issue #2, 2015 of Journal of School Violence reports on this study. "Increasing public awareness of cyberbullying, coupled with several highly publicized youth suicides linked to electronic bullying, have led lawmakers and politicians to consider new criminal legislation specifically related to cyberbullying. However, little is known about how the police currently respond to cyberbullying, and it is not clear whether new laws are necessary. In this article, the authors draw upon in-depth interviews with Canadian street patrol officers and school resource officers to explore police perspectives on policing cyberbullying. In contrast to the reactive hard-line approach proposed in much legislation and public discussion, police officers prefer to take a preventative approach by educating youth and raising awareness about the dangers of digital communications. Although there are instances when criminal charges must be laid, these incidents transcend “bullying,” a term that has little legal meaning for police officers." Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) ISHN facilitated an international project in 2010-12 on capacity and implementation issues in school mental health (SMH) promotion. One of the activities was to start the development of a capacity-based systems model that focused on ministry, agency, school and professional capacities. An article in Issue #2, 2015 of Health Promotion Practice describes a similar effort. The researchers examined statewide capacity for SMH using a post hoc application of a district capacity-building framework to interpret findings from a statewide coordinated school health needs/resource assessment. "Participants included school personnel (N = 643) from one state. Descriptive statistics were calculated for survey items, with further examination of subgroup differences among school administrators and nurses. Findings across districts revealed statewide strengths and gaps with regard to leadership and management capacities, internal and external supports, and an indicator of global capacity. Findings support the utility of using a common framework across local and state levels to align efforts and embed capacity-building activities within a data-driven, continuous improvement model." Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) An article in Issue #1, 2015 of Asia Pacific Education Review that analyzes the mission statements in New Zealand and Japan follows nicely on two two reports from the NZ Education Review Office on student well-being. The reports, Wellbeing for Children’s Success at Primary Schools and Wellbeing for Young People's Success at Secondary Schools highlight good practice in schools but also expose the gaps and the need for a more cohesive approach to student wellbeing. Eleven per cent of NZ primary schools have an extensive focus on well-being, 18% promoted health through curriculum and responding to individual problems, 48% did a reasonable job in promoting a positive school climate, 20% over-relied on behaviour management and 3% were overwhelmed by health issues. Sixteen per cent of NZ secondary schools surveyed had extensive, coordinated approaches, 57% had variable responses to well-being, 21% were challenged in their responses. These NZ reports reflect a strong international leadership status in reporting and monitoring progress in student health. Few countries have matched this. The journal article results will add some excellent, school-level analysis to the national reports. Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) Readers of this blog will know that ISHN has been tracking the changes in overweight/obesity among children and youth to determine if we are making any progress in preventing or reducing childhood obesity. Three articles in Supplementary Issue #2, 2015 of The European Journal of Public Health add to the ongoing observation that little progress is being made. These articles are based on trends analysis of the HBSC data in Western Europe and North America over the past decade. The article on obesity/overweight reported " Overweight prevalence increased among boys in 13 countries and among girls in 12 countries; in 10 countries, predominantly in Eastern Europe, an increase was observed for both boys and girls. Stabilization in overweight rates was noted in the remaining countries; none of the countries exhibited a decrease over the 8-year period examined. In the majority of countries (20/25) there were no age differences in trends in overweight prevalence." The second reported that "Multilevel logistic regression analyses showed an increase in daily fruit and vegetable consumption between 2002 and 2010 in the majority of countries for both genders and all three age groups" The third reported that "There was a slight overall increase in the number of youth reaching at least one hour of physical activity per day between 2002 and 2010 (17.0% and 18.6%, respectively). MVPA increased significantly (P ≤ 0.05) among boys in 16 countries. Conversely, nine countries showed a significant decrease." In our view, these results, despite considerable investments in physical activity programs and changes to school food policies, suggest that we need to reconsider our fundamental approach to address other factors such as structural/life-work circumstances, marketing of unhealthy foods and mental health considerations. Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) All of the articles in Supplementary Issue #2, 2015 of The European Journal of Public Health examine various trends in the health behaviours of children and youth in Western Europe and North America over the past decade. The data is from the Health Behaviours of School-Age Children Survey (HBSC) and offers an excellent overview of changes in the behaviours and some of the school, parental and other social influences and determinants. Topics analyzed include; self-rated health, fruit and vegetable consumption, toothbrushing, multiple recurrent health complaints, overweight prevalence, injury-related mortality and morbidity, physical activity, electronic media communication, perceived parental communication, perceived school pressure, social inequalities, bullying victimization, early and very early sex and condom use, adolescent weekly alcohol use, co-occurrence of tobacco and cannabis use, medicine use for headache, life satisfaction and health complaints. This is the kind of monitoring and reporting data and analysis that can affect decision-making if it is connected to policy-making and professional development processes. Read more>>
(An item from the ISHN Member information service) Two articles in Issue #6, 2013 of Health Education Journal explore teacher views and ideas about health and health education. The first article compared teacher views about health in several European and African countries. The researchers found that women, older teachers, better educated, elementary and language teachers were more apt to hold positive views about health, with significant differences existing between countries. The second article examined the ideas of over 100 Italian teachers, exploring "the relationships among teachers’ health representations, their ideas about health promotion, their working conditions and their involvement in health-promotion activities at school. The results show that teachers have ambiguous health representations; however, the traditional idea of health as absence of illness was prevalent among the teachers surveyed. Regarding health-promotion activities, the teachers seemed to prefer health education programmes based on informative techniques. Some representations of health were connected to the importance that teachers attributed to health promotion and to teachers’ participation in health-promotion activities. Teachers’ working conditions appear not to be related to their involvement in health promotion." Read more>>
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