Scaling up of "A Healthy School Start"
The project "A Healthy School Start" is a family support program developed by the research group Community Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Department of Global Public Health, to offer an adapted approach for student health and teachers to provide support to families with children on healthy lifestyles. The program has been positively received by politicians in Region Stockholm, who have now allocated funds in the budget for further dissemination.
The Community Nutrition and Physical Activity research group began developing the family support program 'A Healthy School Start’ in 2010 and has since conducted three cluster randomized controlled trials of the programme. The researchers have seen positive effects on eating habits, physical activity, and even a significant reduction in BMI in children with obesity on par with treatment studies.
"We hope that the research results will now come to use and it feels very exciting to go from research to practice with the opportunity to make a difference in society," says Liselotte Schäfer Elinder, professor and research group leader of the Community Nutrition and Physical Activity research group.
The Centre for Epidemiology and Community Medicine has been tasked with disseminating it in areas with greater health needs over the next two years. Meanwhile, the researchers are in the final stages of the IMPROVE study, which aims to identify effective implementation strategies to ensure high fidelity to the program.
Related publication:
Universal healthy school start intervention reduced the body mass index of young children with obesity.
Patterson E, Nyberg G, Norman Å, Schäfer Elinder L
Acta Paediatr 2024 Feb;():