title: Validation of an instrument to evaluate health promotion at schools.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To validate an instrument designed to assess health promotion in the school environment.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire, based on guidelines from the World Health Organization and in line with the Brazilian school health context, was developed to validate the research instrument. There were 60 items in the instrument that included 40 questions for the school manager and 20 items with direct observations made by the interviewer. The items' content validation was performed using the Delphi technique, with the instrument being applied in 53 schools from two medium-sized cities in the South region of Brazil. Reliability (Cronbach's alpha and split-half) and validity (principal component analysis) analyses were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The final instrument remained composed of 28 items, distributed into three dimensions: pedagogical, structural and relational. The resulting components showed good factorial loads (> 0.4) and acceptable reliability (> 0.6) for most items. The pedagogical dimension identifies educational activities regarding drugs and sexuality, violence and prejudice, auto care and peace and quality of life. The structural dimension is comprised of access, sanitary structure, and conservation and equipment. The relational dimension includes relationships within the school and with the community.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The proposed instrument presents satisfactory validity and reliability values, which include aspects relevant to promote health in schools. Its use allows the description of the health promotion conditions to which students from each educational institution are exposed. Because this instrument includes items directly observed by the investigator, it should only be used during periods when there are full and regular activities at the school in question.
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, São Leopoldo, RS, Brasil.
authors.forename: Raquel Oliveira
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Pinto
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, São Leopoldo, RS, Brasil.
authors.forename: Marcos Pascoal
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Pattussi
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, São Leopoldo, RS, Brasil.
authors.forename: Larissa do Prado
authors.initials: Ldo P
authors.lastname: Fontoura
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, São Leopoldo, RS, Brasil.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poletto
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, São Leopoldo, RS, Brasil.
authors.forename: Valenca Lemes
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Grapiglia
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, São Leopoldo, RS, Brasil.
authors.forename: Alexandre Didó
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Balbinot
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, São Leopoldo, RS, Brasil.
authors.forename: Vanessa Andina
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Teixeira
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, São Leopoldo, RS, Brasil.
authors.forename: Rogério Lessa
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Horta
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D003697:Delphi Technique; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D054928:Validation Studies as Topic