Schools have the potential to make valuable contributions to both the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity. This article reviews the research on school-based interventions to prevent and treat obesity. A literature search from 1965 to the present on school-based treatment of obesity, identified 11 controlled experimental studies. The results show positive, though modest short-term results. Relatively few primary prevention research studies, targeted specifically to preventing obesity, have been conducted. Therefore, efficacy has not been established. Both primary and secondary obesity interventions have a role in schools. A comprehensive, integrated model for school-based obesity prevention is presented. This model, building upon the comprehensive school health program model, consists of eight interacting components: health instruction; health services; school environment; food service; school-site health promotion for faculty and staff; social support services; physical education classes; and integrated and linked family and community health promotion efforts. While multi-faceted community-wide efforts are needed to address the growing problem of obesity, schools are in a unique position to play a pivotal role in promoting healthy lifestyles and helping to prevent obesity.

http://gsareach.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Story-School-Obesity-3.pdf

School-based approaches for preventing and treating obesity

It is the position of the American Dietetic Association (ADA), the Society for Nutrition Education (SNE), and the American School Food Service Association (ASFSA) that comprehensive nutrition services must be provided to all of the nation's preschool through grade twelve students These nutrition services shall be integrated with a coordinated, comprehensive school health program and implemented through a school nutrition policy The policy should link comprehensive, sequential nutrition education; access to and promotion of child nutrition programs providing nutritious meals and snacks in the school environment; and family, community, and health services' partnerships supporting positive health outcomes for all children Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions and is directly attributed to physical inactivity and diet Schools can play a key role in reversing this trend through coordinated nutrition services that promote policies linking comprehensive, sequential nutrition education programs, access to and marketing of child nutrition programs, a school environment that models healthy food choices, and community partnerships This position paper provides information and resources for nutrition professionals to use in developing and supporting comprehensive school health programs J Am Diet Assoc 2003;103:505-514

Position of the American Dietetic Association, Society for Nutrition Education, and American School Food Service Association--Nutrition services: an essential component of comprehensive school health programs.

Sol Cohen was right and wrong. Education was medicalized but thisprocessoccurredmuchearlierandnotnecessarilyinthewayheexplainedit. Today, psychotherapeutic knowledge is nevertheless commonlyaccepted as central or natural to administrative offices and classrooms ofNorth American schools. But this medicalization of classroom policies,practices, and schools was not a progressive process of the medicalestablishment securing its hegemony over the jurisdiction of moderneducation. Rather, the medicalization of education was much lessdetermined and much more contingent than medicalization thesessuggest. Medical practices were constructed in schools through complexand subtle interrelationships among the likes of janitors, nurses,pediatricians, pathologists, pharmacists, psychologists, psychiatrists,social workers, and teachers during the late nineteenth and first threedecadesofthetwentiethcentury.Theseinterrelationshipswerereinforcedby practices of eugenics, hygiene, and public health. In material forms,these interrelationships were manifested within architectural spaces,discourses, and practices in clinics, courts, hospitals, prisons, andschools. Education is just one of a variety of social practices thatembraced the power of psychotherapeutic values, and where a variety ofhealth interventions were administered and politicized. There arecountless redundancies across diverse social practices in the ‘‘psychiatricsociety,’’‘‘therapeuticstate,’’‘‘medicalizationoflife,’’orwhatCohencalledthe ‘‘triumph of the therapeutic.’’

The Medicalization of Education: A Historiographic Synthesis

History of school-based mental health services in the United States.

Objective To describe the quantity and type of school health services provided by nurses in Boston Public Schools. Setting In 2001, the 63 024 students enrolled predominantly belonged to minority groups (48% black, 28% Hispanic, and 9% Asian) and were eligible for a free or reduced-price lunch (71%). Main Outcome Measure Analysis of the 2001-2002 Boston Public Schools Health Services database. Results A total of 63 024 students generated 721 291 individual encounters with 93.5 full-time equivalent school nurses, including episodic care (57.8%), medication administration (31.5%), procedures (6.2%), and screening (5.1%). A total of 2420 students had an individual health care plan for the administration of medications and procedures during the school day. Students with individual health care plans averaged 117.9 encounters per year with school nurses, and students without averaged 7.2 encounters per year. Outcomes of encounters included school dismissal (3.0%); verbal communication with parents (10.6%), school staff (3.9%), and community agencies or health care providers (1.1%); and referral to a primary care provider (4.6%) or emergency services ( Conclusions Some school-age children receive a large amount of health care from school nurses in Boston Public Schools. We estimate that these children are 8 times more likely to see a school nurse than a pediatric health care provider. These school nurses were involved in the care of children with mental health and chronic health care needs. Despite the extensive amount of care, little is known about the efficacy of the care provided or the effect of these services on health care use.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/articlepdf/485900/poa40098.pdf

School nursing services: use in an urban public school system.

Health programs were introduced into schools approximately 100 years ago. Since that time, changes in school health programs and philosophies have been influenced by trends in the fields of both education and health care. This article describes the beginnings of school health in the United States, suggests the varying roles health and education have played in the evolution of its character, outlines the philosophical and political underpinnings of the system, and identifies three perspectives on school health as it is conceptualized and practiced in the 1990s.

Lear Jg

Papers

School-Based Services and Adolescent Health: Past, Present, and Future.