An Assessment of Schools’ Wellness Policies and Teachers’ Perspectives and Confidence in Teaching Nutrition in Elementary Schools in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Objectives This study aimed to evaluate the content of school wellness policies and understand teacher perspectives about teaching nutrition education at their schools in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Methods In 2020, electronic surveys were used to evaluate the wellness policies in 11 elementary all-female government schools and teachers’ perspectives about the nutrition education offered in three elementary all-female government schools. Sixty-one teachers and eleven principals participated in this study. Fisher's exact tests were used to test the differences between teachers’ perspectives and their confidence level and characteristics. A P-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Results showed that most schools (N = 10) have a formal school wellness policy that provides a healthy environment for students and ensures facilitate their access to healthy eating and exercise. Many teachers (55.2%) agreed that there are adequate resources are available to them to teach nutrition in the schools, and (58.6%) of them agreed that they have had adequate training from qualified people on nutrition education. Most teachers (94.7%) were confident in teaching nutrition and physical activity to their students. Teachers between 30–50 years of age were more interested in teaching nutrition than teachers whose age is more than 50 years old (P < 0.05). Conclusions In summary, schools operated very efficiently to offer nutritional education for students, and most teachers are confident and interested in teaching nutrition. There is a need for further studies investigating nutrition education in schools in Saudi Arabia. Funding Sources No funding sources

Local Data for Action: Statewide Dissemination of School Wellness Policy Evaluations in Wisconsin

School settings can influence child health, including physical activity and diet, through the promotion of high-quality wellness policies. Many studies have analyzed the quality of school wellness policies, but evidence is lacking regarding the dissemination of the policy evaluation results to school districts. This study describes the process the Wisconsin Health Atlas followed to disseminate tailored school wellness policy data reports and interactive dashboards to school districts throughout the state and the results of the statewide dissemination efforts. Prioritizing the translation of research to practice, the process included collaborating with key stakeholders and partners to provide formative feedback on the dissemination activities. The electronic and hard copy reports were disseminated to 232 districts through email and U.S. mail. Each district received a tailored report featuring an executive summary, local data for action, personalized policy recommendations, best practices, and a unique code to enter into interactive data dashboards to explore additional local, regional, and state-level data. In the utilization follow-up survey (20.3% response rate), respondents indicated that the report will help their district to improve the quality of their school wellness policy. Additionally, respondents who had used the report specified they used the data to identify areas for policy improvement and to support their triennial assessment, suggesting that districts value the technical support. To support school districts in improving the quality of school wellness policies, we recommend researchers prioritize collaborative dissemination efforts and provide actionable policy data when conducting school wellness policy evaluations.

School Wellness Environments: Perceptions Versus Realities

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Final Rule on School Wellness Policy requires schools to self-evaluate wellness policies and environments. To understand the utility of this information, this study evaluates the validity of school-reported wellness information against directly observed data. Wellness leaders at 10 Midwestern elementary schools completed a questionnaire spanning nine school wellness settings. School-reported information was compared against a direct observation protocol. Percent agreement and κ statistics were used to assess agreement between school reporters and direct observation. Overall percent agreement between reporters and direct observation was 77.1%. Agreement ranged from 67.3% (Lunchroom Environment) to 92.0% (School Wellness Policies) across the nine categories. κ results showed that 65.7% of the items demonstrated fair or better reporter agreement. The results provide preliminary support for the utility of schools’ self-reported wellness information. Facilitation of independent reporting on wellness environments by school leaders will contribute to broader applications for school wellness programming.