School Wellness in Wisconsin: Evaluating Policies for Practices to Prevent Pediatric Obesity

Abstract

BACKGROUND:We examined written language in Wisconsin school wellness policies (SWPs) for federal mandate compliance, quality related to obesity prevention, and school characteristics associated with variations in quality. This is the first near census of Wisconsin SWPs and examines whether adhering to federal mandates results in strong policies aimed at preventing pediatric obesity. METHODS:Policies were coded using the WellSAT 2.0. Policy quality was computed as comprehensiveness and strength based on 6 subscales and 2 overall scores. Variations in policy quality were examined by district size, free/reduced lunch percentage, and year of last revision. RESULTS:We received SWPs from 91% of districts. Six of the 8 federal mandates were addressed by the majority of districts, although less than one fourth addressed all. Most comprehensiveness scores were weak to moderate, and strength scores were weak. All school characteristics were significantly related to overall policy quality; effect sizes were small. CONCLUSIONS:Our results confirm the necessity of statewide focus on SWP improvement and suggest that while districts may be meeting federal mandates related to pediatric obesity, few policies include health promotion practices beyond those required. Policies remain fragmented and lack focus on obesity prevention practices; we identify modifiable areas for improvement.

Use of School Wellness Policy Templates in One Texas Public Health Region: A Mixed‐Methods Analysis

“…We found that when districts use templates to create their SWP, they rarely make edits to the template text, but are more likely to choose specific goals from the template to include. These findings are consistent with previous studies showing that most SWPs focus on federally required goals, but not goals for improving obesity or implementing comprehensive health programming 28,29 . Additionally, we found that when a goal was listed as the first option in the template, then utilization of that goal was higher than other goals further down the list.…”

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

“…School districts participating in the National School Lunch Program or the School Breakfast Program are required to develop a SWP governing obesity prevention best practices such as nutrition education, physical education and activity, nutrition guidelines for school meals and competitive foods, wellness promotion and marketing to students, and a triennial SWP assessment (U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA], 2016). In Wisconsin, the average SWP quality is low, characterized by vague policy language (Weymouth et al, 2019), demonstrating the importance of improving the quality of SWPs statewide.…”

“…While many studies have evaluated SWP quality (M. J. Cox et al, 2016;Hood et al, 2013;Meendering et al, 2016;Piekarz-Porter et al, 2017;Schwartz et al, 2012;Taber et al, 2012;Weymouth et al, 2019), little is known about the process of disseminating tailored SWP evaluation results to school districts statewide. Indeed, within public health there is a research to practice translation gap (Green et al, 2009), partly due to unsuccessful dissemination (Brownson et al, 2018).…”

“…Department of Agriculture [USDA], 2016). In Wisconsin, the average SWP quality is low, characterized by vague policy language (Weymouth et al, 2019), demonstrating the importance of improving the quality of SWPs statewide.…”