BackgroundThere is a need to identify strategies that enhance the implementation of evidence-based school wellness intervention programs in real-world settings. The present study evaluates the feasibility of empowering school wellness leaders to deliver an evidence-based, childhood obesity-prevention program called Switch ™. We specifically evaluated the feasibility of a new implementation framework, based on the robust Healthy Youth Places framework, to increase capacity of school leaders to lead school wellness programming.MethodsThe SWITCH (School Wellness Integration Targeting Child Health) implementation process was evaluated in a convenience sample of eight Iowa elementary schools. Teams of three leaders from each school attended an in-person school wellness conference followed by five online webinar sessions delivered by two SWITCH team members. The capacity-building and quality improvement process was designed to empower schools to lead wellness change using methods and concepts from the original 16-week Switch ™ program. School wellness leaders completed checklists on two occasions to assess overall school-level implementation as well as setting-level changes in physical education, classrooms, and the lunchroom. Student acceptability of SWITCH was evaluated by the degree of behavior tracking using an online SWITCH Tracker system that promoted self-monitoring. School acceptability and practicality were assessed through an exit survey completed by school leaders.ResultsAll school staff reported satisfaction with the SWITCH implementation process. Reports of school- and setting-level implementation were relatively high (2.0 to 2.8 on a 3-point scale) but student engagement, based on use of the online tracking system, varied greatly over time and across schools. Three high implementation schools had average tracking rates exceeding 70% (range: 72–90%) while three low implementation schools had rates lower than 30% (range = 0–23%).ConclusionsThis feasibility study supports the utility of the new implementation framework for promoting school and student engagement with SWITCH. Further testing regarding effectiveness and scale-up of this evidence-based school wellness intervention program is warranted.

School Wellness Integration Targeting Child Health (SWITCH®) is a school wellness implementation initiative focused on building capacity for schools to plan and coordinate wellness programming. Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), the purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of the web-based, self-regulation system on physical activity (PA) behavior outcomes. At pre-test and post-test, students in SWITCH® schools (n = 8) completed the online Youth Activity Profile (YAP) to assess PA and sedentary behavior (SB). Students (n = 513) were categorized into high or low self-monitoring groups (using a median split) based on their use of the web-based self-regulation platform. Linear mixed models were used to assess differences in moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and sedentary behavior, with school, classroom, student, time-by-school, and time-by-classroom random effects and main and interaction fixed effects for student self-monitoring, gender, and time. Significant self-monitoring-by-time interactions were observed for estimates of PA F(1, 477) = 5.55, p = 0.02 and SB F(1, 477) = 4.90, p = 0.03. Students in the high self-monitoring group had larger gains in PA per day and larger declines in hours per day of sedentary screen time behavior compared to students in the low self-monitoring group. These findings support the utility of web-based self-regulation for facilitating PA change in youth.

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