Impact of Mississippi healthy students act of 2007 on district- and school-level health policies: school officials' perspectives.
BACKGROUND
Annual evaluations of the Mississippi Healthy Students Act of 2007 (MHSA) were conducted during 2009-2011 (years 1-3) among 4 stakeholder groups: (1) parents of public school students, (2) adolescents, (3) state-level policymakers (ie, legislators and other state officials), and (4) public school officials (ie, superintendents and school board members).


METHODS
We examine results from the first state-wide surveys conducted among purposive samples of superintendents (N = 314) and school board members (N = 689) on childhood obesity as it related to MHSA. These school officials were surveyed in years 1-3 to determine their knowledge or attitudes toward MHSA and support of potential policies, such as reporting results of student body mass index (BMI) assessments to parents.


RESULTS
Through the 3 years of the study, school officials were supportive of MHSA across a number of variables, although superintendents were consistently more supportive of current policies as compared with school board members.


CONCLUSIONS
Results underscore the current and potential role of school officials relative to the process of fully implementing MHSA within all public school districts in Mississippi. Implications and 3 cases that illustrate diverse ways that school districts have chosen to implement effective school-based health initiatives are discussed.
Family and Children Research Unit, Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University, 1 Research Boulevard, Mississippi State, MS 39762. anne.buffington@ssrc.msstate.edu.
Anne
A
Buffington
Colleen
C
McKee
Kathleen
K
Ragsdale
Troy C
TC
Blanchard
Dorris
D
Baggett
Linda H
LH
Southward
D004032:Diet; D015444:Exercise; D006266:Health Education; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008922:Mississippi; D010290:Parents; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012574:Schools / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013334:Students
child and adolescent health; health policy; nutrition and diet; organization and administration of school health programs