(An item from ISHN Member information service) An in-depth report from the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada on their regular national report on student achievement in mathematics reveals that student and school characteristics account for 78% of the variance between student scores. Student characteristics include socio-economic status, support at home for learning, gender, aboriginal status, after school activities, student use of technology etc). School characteristics include size, demographics, presence of special needs students and teacher experience/qualifications). The report suggests that the other factors including the liking school, having friends at school, curriculum, teaching methods, student assessment practices and staff attitudes towards testing can make the learning more equitable and more effective. One of the interesting items is that playing with computer games after school helps math learning (but may not be so good for physical activity). The high quality of the report makes it good reading for advocates of health and social development advocates in that it demonstrates the need for a "whole child" approach to learning. It also may prompt the question as to why educational authorities are not issuing similar reports on the social role of schooling and student learning on health, social development and safety. Read more.    

(An item from ISHN Member information service) All of the articles in Supplementary Issue #3, November, 2012 of Journal of Health Communications examine different aspects of research related to health literacy. They include HL and culture, disadvantage, skills, english langauge skills and information technology. It should be noted that the core use of the term "health literacy" remains focused on the advancement of individuals and groups with disadvantages in society and is therefore true to the original use of the HL term as a derivative of the term "literacy" used to describe the basic literacy and numeracy knowledge, skills and access required for daily living. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in the October 2012 issue of BMC Public Health presents the study protocol of a study underway in Sydney Australia that will examine how PE teachers can be taught to motivate students to be more active. This study is to compare the effect of three motivational strategies, each based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), on PA levels, and their hypothesized antecedents, during year 8 PE lessons. The primary outcomes were lesson time spent in moderate-to-vigorous PA, and motivation towards the lesson. Secondary outcomes were perceptions of teacher behavior, psychological needs satisfaction, and lesson time spent in sedentary behavior. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) A Canadian study in the October 2012 issue of BMC Public Health examined the reasons why parents choose to have their children walk to school or if they will be driven or escorted. The objective of this study was to compare family demographics and AST related perceptions of parents who let their children walk unescorted to/from school to those parents who escort (walk and drive) their children to/from school. By comparing these groups, insight was gained into how we may encourage greater AST and independent mobility in youth living in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Canada. Findings revealed that unescorted children were: significantly older, the families spoke predominantly English at home, were more likely to live within one kilometer from school, and their parents agreed to a greater extent that they chose to reside in the current neighborhood in order for their child to walk to/from school. The parents of the escorted children worried significantly more about strangers and bullies approaching their child as well as the traffic volume around school. The authors conclude that "research and practice should focus on the development and sustainability of non-infrastructure programs that alleviate parental safety concerns" Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) As we realize that complex ecologies and systems require multiple, linked interventions that address the whole of the problem and modify different parts of the multiple, inter-locking systems that form the environment around individuals and organizations, we need practical tools to help sort out the complexity. An article in the October 2012 issue of Social Science & Medicine suggests that careful document analysis is one such method. "This paper explores issues of implementation and sustainability by examining the case of PRISM (Program of Resources, Information and Support for Mothers), a community randomised trial in Victoria, Australia aimed at improving maternal health and wellbeing. It examines documents placed on the project website. Three groups of documents relating to implementation of the intervention were examined – implementation reports, media reports and community newsletters. Analysing these documents allowed a focus on the ‘work’ of the intervention – who does the work and what activities comprise the work – in order to examine implementation as it relates to sustainability. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in the October 2012 issue of Social Science & Medicine that links specific government capacity at the sub-national level with the prevention and incidence of malaria. The authors report that: "Government capacity is more successful in predicting malaria incidence than potentially more direct indicators such as state public health expenditures and economic development levels. We find that high government capacity can moderate the deleterious health effects of malaria in rice producing regions. Our research also suggests that government capacity may have exacerbated the effectiveness of the World Bank Malaria Control Project in India over the period studied. We conclude by proposing the integration of government capacity measures into existing planning efforts, including vulnerability mapping tools and disease surveillance efforts. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article analyzing data from the multi-country Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence Cross-sectional Study were analyzed to report that "boys reporting more than 4 h/d of watching television, playing computer games, and using the Internet for recreation were more likely to consume sweetened beverages (weekends) and less likely to consume fruit (weekdays) than those who spent less than 2 h/d. Girls spending more time per day watching television and playing computer or video games (weekdays) and playing computer games or surfing the Internet for recreation (weekends) were more likely to drink sweetened beverages and less likely to consume fruit (weekdays) than those who spent less than 2 h/d. A related news story on a Canadian study reports that counselling parents can result in them discouraging their children from eating infront of the TV (but not reduce their TV watching). Both of these items were noted in the ISHN weekly report on news and research. Read more. (ISHN membership frequ 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) The challenge of enticing kids from their multiple multiple media devices may be met in part by the use of active video game technology. That is the implication of an article in the November 2012 issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. The authors report that: Dance Central and Kinect Sports Boxing increased energy expenditure by 150% and 263%, respectively, above resting values and were 103% and 194% higher than traditional video gaming. This equates to an increased energy expenditure of up to 172 kcal · h–1 compared with traditional sedentary video game play. Played regularly, active gaming using Kinect for the Xbox 360 could prove to be an effective means for increasing physical activity and energy expenditure in children. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) Last month we learned that if McDonald's gives out toys with healthier foods, consumption grows. In Issue #4, 2012 of Preventive Medicine, a small study of elementary students reports that if the schools used attractive names for vegetable choices on the menu, student consumption increased. Anybody for X-Ray Carrots? Read more.

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in the October 2012 issue of Health Education research reports on four years of implementing a sun safety accreditation program for elementary schools in New Zealand. After four years (2005-09) the authors report that "Compared with 2005, increase in the percentages of schools meeting each of the 12 accreditation criteria were observed in 2009, except role modeling which dropped slightly to become the second most frequently attained criterion, marginally below play in the shade (Table I). The greatest increase was found for play in the shade, sunscreen and hats, followed by other clothing and environmental shade. The smallest increase was found for planning, followed by rescheduling and curriculum. The clothing component remained the least frequently attained SSAP criterion, followed by shade, then curriculum". In 2009, although most of the 189 participating schools followed up still only partially addressed sun protection, many had increased the number of ways in which they did this since baseline. However, relatively low levels of attainment were observed for some SSAP components, in particular, clothing (43.3%), shade (51.5%) and curriculum (54.4%). The study noted that advocates of the accreditation program included Cancer Society volunteers, the NZ Health Promoting Schools program, nurses and a Fruit in the Schools program. The authors conclude with the statement that " it seems anomalous that it should remain largely the responsibility of NGO health promoters and a charity to not only develop, implement and evaluate the SSAP, but also to continue to resource it in the absence of appropriate commitment at public service level. The Ministries of Health and Education could make collaborative efforts to help ensure the universal implementation and sustainability of this established and positively evaluated program through its integration into broader health and safety practice. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in the October 2012 issue of School Psychology International "reports on the educator portion of a study of cyberbullying at two large, technology-rich secondary schools in Canada. The researchers discuss 17 educators’ experiences with cyberbullying, their knowledge of social networking technology, the priority they place on preventing cyberbullying, and the remedies they suggest. Qualitative analyses of taped interview responses to 16 open-ended questions revealed that they were unaware of the extent of cyberbullying among their students and although they saw prevention as a priority, and were able to pose possible solutions, no policies or programs had been implemented, even by the younger teachers, who were more technologically savvy. Nor were the educators interested in learning the results of the student portion of our research, preferring instead that cyberbullying remain under their radar.  Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) The October 2012 issue of School Psychology International is a special issue on cyberbullying and schools. The articles include an overview of the challenges, perceptions of elementary school students, reports from Canada, Australia and the evidence showing the need for active support from schools. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) Four articles in the October 2012 issue of the Journal of School Nursing examine the costs, coordination and coverage of school-based influenza vaccination programs. The cost of school vaccination programs was calculated by estimating the time spent by school nurses outside their normal clinic duties (22 out of 69 hours). and the calculation estimates such costs at $15.36 per dose. A second article calculated the per dose during the recent H1N1 campaign to be $13.51. The third article examined feasibility and acceptability and reported that "school personnel and the vaccinator viewed the school-located vaccinations as feasible and beneficial. However, the vaccinator identified difficulties with third-party billing as a potential threat to sustainability. The fourth article examined the coordination of school and state immunization records in Washington state. Read more. 

(An item from ISHN Member information service) An article in the October 2012 issue of the Journal of School Health reports on the dissemination and administrator awareness of guidelines promoting the sale of healthier snacks in elementary schools in the US between 2006-07 and 2009-10. The Alliance for a Healthier Generation launched the Healthy Schools Program in 2006 to encourage schools to create healthier food environments, including the adoption of nutritional guidelines for competitive beverages and foods. This study examines nationwide awareness and implementation of the guidelines in US public elementary schools. From 2006-2007 to 2009-2010, awareness of the Alliance's beverage guidelines increased from 35.0% to 51.8% among school administrators (p < .01); awareness of the food guidelines increased from 29.4% to 40.2% (p < .01). By 2009-2010, almost one third of the schools that sold competitive beverages and foods reported having implemented or being in the process of implementing the guidelines. As noted, the awareness and use of the guidelines is increasing but, also, as the results show, the challenges of dissemination in a large country like the USA are considerable.  Read more.