School wellness policies: effects of using standard templates.
BACKGROUND
Public school policies related to physical activity and nutrition recently have become the focal point for policymakers to evaluate the effect of regulations on the childhood obesity epidemic. State school board associations have begun to provide school districts templates for wellness policies, and little research exists that evaluates the effect of a template on the strength and comprehensiveness of these policies.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the strength and comprehensiveness of school wellness policies developed using a standard template when compared to those that do not.


METHODS
In 2011, a random sample of wellness policies from school districts in Virginia (ten locally developed wellness policies and ten template-based policies) was coded using a previously validated audit tool for strength and comprehensiveness. Data were reduced to a scale ranging from 0 to 1, with higher scores representing stronger and more-comprehensive policies, and compared using t-tests.


RESULTS
Overall, only 17% of school wellness policies met all federal requirements. On average, locally developed policies met five of six federal requirements, whereas VSBA policies met four of six, t(2, 21)=2.161, p<0.05. Both types of policies were ranked on a scale from 0 (weakest) to 1 (strongest); both types were weak (M=0.16±0.13) and only mildly comprehensive (M=0.37±0.16). There was a difference in policy comprehensiveness and strength between locally developed policies and template-based policies. Locally developed policies were stronger, t(2, 21)= -1.82, p<0.05, and more comprehensive, t(2, 21)= -2.5, p<0.05, than template-based policies.


CONCLUSIONS
In this sample, locally developed policies were stronger than template-based policies. If replicated in large studies, these findings suggest that further research is needed about how best to support schools that wish to develop school wellness policies.
Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA. erinsmith@vt.edu
Erin M
EM
Smith
Kristen L
KL
Capogrossi
Paul A
PA
Estabrooks
D015438:Health Behavior; D006291:Health Policy; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009043:Motor Activity; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D011050:Policy Making; D012572:School Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012574:Schools / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014768:Virginia