In 2006, the Anchorage School District implemented a school wellness policy to address the problem of obesity among its elementary-aged students. We assessed whether the addition of this policy is effective in protecting or preventing students from becoming overweight/obese over time. The methods involved following two cohorts of students for 5 years, a cohort not exposed and a cohort exposed to the policy. The results show that exposure to the policy does not significantly protect or prevent students from becoming overweight/obese. However, we found that regardless of being exposed to the policy, boys (odds ratio [OR] = 1.12), ethnic minorities, (OR = 1.18), and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds (OR = 1.44) were more likely to remain or become overweight/obese. Our findings suggest that factors outside the school may be impacting students' overweight/obese status. Efforts to curb the problem of childhood obesity should extend to the children's communities and homes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.