The Role of Teachers in Addressing Childhood Obesity: A School-Based Approach.

Childhood obesity is one of the most prevalent public health challenges in the United States, and although rates are declining overall, rates among children living in underserved neighborhoods are increasing. This five-year intervention project seeks to empower teachers ( = 92) to invest in their own health and then integrate nutrition concepts into core subjects' lessons in elementary schools. The professional development sessions reflect the concepts in the Whole Child, Whole School, Whole Community model.

Healthy Schoolhouse 2.0 Strides toward Equity in Obesity Prevention.

Over the past two decades, childhood obesity has been recognized as an increasing health problem with stark disparities by race, ethnicity, and zip code. A single-level intervention that focuses on individual choices has limited success especially in under-resourced communities. The "Getting to Equity" model provides a framework for building interventions that incorporate multilevel strategies.

Retrieval-induced forgetting in children and adolescents with and without obesity.

Background/objectives: Previous research indicates that youth with obesity exhibit deficits in executive functioning (EF), which often take the form of impaired response inhibition. One aspect of EF not previously studied in obesity is the adaptive process known as retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF), the suppression/inhibition of intrusive or non-target items by the retrieval of specific items from memory. The present study investigated if child or adolescent obesity disrupts the ability to inhibit retrieval of intrusive memories.

Healthy Schoolhouse 2.0 Health Promotion Intervention to Reduce Childhood Obesity in Washington, DC: A Feasibility Study.

Childhood obesity prevalence trends involve complex societal and environmental factors as well as individual behaviors. The Healthy Schoolhouse 2.0 program seeks to improve nutrition literacy among elementary school students through an equity-focused intervention that supports the health of students, teachers, and the community.

Design and Implementation of a 5-Year School-Based Nutrition Education Intervention.

Objective: To describe the research methods of a multicomponent nutrition education program empowering teachers to improve nutrition literacy and prevent obesity among elementary school students.

Design: Prospective 5-year study following a pre-post intervention design.

Setting: Four elementary schools in a high-needs area in Washington, DC: 2 intervention and 2 comparison schools.

Measuring the Implementation of a School Wellness Policy.

Background: With the rise in childhood obesity, school policies related to nutrition and physical activity have been written and implemented. In this paper, we present a model to evaluate the degree to which state legislation for school health policies are implemented at the school level.

Methods: Using Washington, DC's Healthy Schools Act (HSA) and a self-report measure of the implementation of the HSA, we illustrate the process of developing a composite score that can be used to measure compliance with the provisions of the law.

Translating school health research to policy. School outcomes related to the health environment and changes in mathematics achievement.

This paper describes an exploration of the relationship between mathematic achievement and the school health environment relative to policy-driven changes in the school setting, specifically with regard to physical education/physical activity. Using school-level data, the authors seek to understand the relationship between mathematics achievement and the school health environment and physical education minutes. This work provides a description of the aspects of the school health environment, an exploration of the interrelationships between school health and student achievement, and an assessment of the effects of the school health policy and practice on student performance and health status.