Grant: Project Grant

Less than 10% of Canadian children meet physical activity (PA) guidelines, 75% do not eat enough fruits and vegetables, and many consume too much high-fat and high-sugar foods. Increasingly, teens aged 15-17 rate their mental health as "poor to fair." Schools are well-positioned to promote PA, nutrition, and mental health/well-being because they reach nearly all children. Since 2012, most Canadian ministries of education and health have adopted the Comprehensive School Health (CSH) framework to support health initiatives. However, there is limited knowledge on how to effectively implement and scale-up CSH initiatives and we lack the understanding of how PHNs+ (Public Health Nurses, Community Health Specialists, and Dietitians) can support these initiatives. This project aims to: 1): Identify the best policies, practices, and strategies to promote PA, nutrition, and mental health/well-being initiatives in elementary schools; 2) Explore how PHNs+ and the school community can collaborate to support CSH PA, nutrition, and mental health/well-being initiatives; 3) Examine factors that influence the implementation of CSH initiatives both inside and outside the school environment; and 4) Assess whether students in schools that adopt CSH initiatives have better behavioural and health outcomes. To achieve these aims, we will: 1) Conduct a systematic review; 2) Interview 70-80 participants, including 50-60 school staff (principals, teachers, and health champions) and 20 PHNs+; and 3) Collect school-level data from 771 BC elementary schools and link it to student-level data that is provincially collected with the Middle Years Development Instrument (27,000 students). We will also examine how equity factors (e.g., location, vulnerability) interact with sex and gender. The results will expand practical knowledge of implementing CSH, improve CSH assessment tools, identify gaps in implementation, set benchmarks for future initiatives, and guide PHNs+ in supporting CSH.