Study protocol of the Healthy High School study: a school-based intervention to improve well-being among high school students in Denmark

Bonnesen, Camilla Thørring; Toftager, Mette; Madsen, Katrine Rich; Wehner, Stine Kjær; Jensen, Marie Pil; Rosing, Johanne Aviaja; Laursen, Bjarne; Rod, Naja Hulvej; Due, Pernille; Krølner, Rikke

doi:10.1186/s12889-020-8194-y

Cited by 19 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 57 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Different staff members may perceive aspects of readiness differently (Hustus and Owens 2018 ) and using more respondents in each school might give a more reliable picture of the school readiness. However, getting busy teachers to respond to questionnaires is a difficult task and low teacher response rates have been found in previous Danish school-based studies, as well as a huge variation in number of teachers responding per school (Bonnesen et al 2020 ; Jørgensen et al 2015 ). This suggest that though it is not ideal using the main responsible coordinator, as respondent might be the only way to assess readiness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

School Coordinators’ Perceptions of Organizational Readiness Is Associated with Implementation Fidelity in a Smoking Prevention Program: Findings from the X:IT II Study

Bast

Andersen

et al. 2021

Prev Sci

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

School organizational readiness to implement interventions may play an important role for the actual obtained implementation level, and knowledge about organizational readiness prior to intervention start can help pinpoint how to optimize support to the schools. In this study, we applied a novel heuristic, R = MC2 to assess school organizational readiness prior to implementation of a multicomponent smoking prevention program. Furthermore, we examined the association to actual implementation after the first year of study. We used questionnaire data from school coordinators at 40 schools in Denmark who had accepted to implement the multi-component smoking prevention intervention—X:IT II—in the school year 2017–2018 including three main components: (1) Rules on smoke-free school time, (2) A smoke-free curriculum, and (3) Parental involvement. On behalf of the school, a school coordinator answered a baseline questionnaire about the organizational readiness and a follow-up questionnaire about implementation of the three components after first year of study. Readiness was measured by summing aspects of motivation (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, and priority), general capacity (culture, climate, and staff capacity), and innovation-specific capacity (knowledge, skills, and abilities). Based on school coordinators’ perceptions, almost all schools had good general capacity while the other two areas of readiness varied across schools; overall, 56.8% of schools (N = 25) had good motivation for implementing the X:IT II intervention and 61.3% (N = 27) had high innovation-specific capacity. Half of the schools had high overall readiness defined as high motivation and high innovation-specific capacity. Schools with high overall readiness implemented the rules on smoke-free school time, smoke-free curriculum, and parental involvement to a higher degree than schools with low overall readiness. All participating schools possessed sufficient levels of general capacity, e.g., a well-functioning organizational culture and sufficient staff capacity. High levels of motivation and innovation-specific capacity were positively associated with the schools’ actual implementation of the main intervention components. This way of conceptualizing and measuring organizational readiness may be useful in future studies, i.e., in studies where enhancing readiness is a main objective.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

School Coordinators’ Perceptions of Organizational Readiness Is Associated with Implementation Fidelity in a Smoking Prevention Program: Findings from the X:IT II Study

Bast

Andersen

et al. 2021

Prev Sci

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…articles, tracking options, recipes). The trial is registered in Current Controlled Trials (ID: ISRCTN43284296, 28 April 2017) and has been described in detail elsewhere ( Bonnesen et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The HHS questionnaires included items from the DNYS ( Pisinger et al, 2020 ), the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study ( Roberts et al, 2009 ), the Boost study ( Krølner et al, 2012 ), the Pro Children study ( De Bourdeaudhuij et al, 2005 ), and the X:IT study ( Andersen et al, 2014 ). The items were either transferred directly or adapted to our study population ( Bonnesen et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

What characterizes schools and students participating in health promoting school-based intervention studies? Findings from the healthy high school study

Bonnesen

Rosing

Jensen

et al. 2021

Preventive Medicine Reports

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Healthy High School (HHS) intervention was developed to promote well-being among first-year high school students (~16 years of age) in Denmark by targeting stress, physical activity, meal habits, sleep, and sense of community. Thirty-one schools were randomly allocated to intervention (16 schools) or control (15 schools) groups in a cluster-randomized controlled trial. The purpose of this short communication was to compare characteristics of students and schools between 1) schools accepting to participate in the HHS study and non-participating schools using national survey data and 2) intervention and control schools using HHS baseline data. We included cross-sectional data from the Danish National Youth Study 2014 on 119 schools and 22,935 first-year students to characterize participating schools and students. At baseline (August 2016), students (n = 4577; 88.0%) and principals (n = 29; 96.7%) completed online questionnaires. Compared to non-participating schools, fewer HHS schools perceived their school as being popular and offered weekly sport activities outside school hours. More HHS schools had teachers engaged in health promotion activities and focused on stress prevention. The characteristics of HHS students did not differ markedly from non-participating high school students. There were no socio-demographic, outcome or contextual differences between the study arms. To ensure successful recruitment of schools it is important that the intervention meets the need of the schools and that the advantages of participation are explicit. This underlines the need for a thorough needs assessment prior to intervention development, co-creation of intervention activities with school staff, and a well-planned recruitment strategy.

show abstract

“…Y&A was one of four intervention components that aimed at promoting well-being among high school students in Denmark in the Healthy High School intervention (HHS). HHS was tested in a cluster-randomised trial including 16 intervention and 15 control schools [ 28 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptation, Student Participation and Gradual Withdrawal by Researchers as Sustainability Strategies in the High School-Based Young and Active Intervention: School Coordinators’ Perspectives

Wehner

Tjørnhøj‐Thomsen

Duus

et al. 2021

IJERPH

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ensuring the sustainability of school-based public health intervention activities remains a challenge. The Young and Active (Y&A) intervention used peer-led workshops to promote movement and strengthen students’ sense of community in 16 Danish high schools. Peer mentors inspired first-year students to implement movement activities. To support sustainability, we applied a three-year stepwise implementation strategy using university students as peer mentors in year 1 and senior high school students in the following two years. This study explores the sustainability potential of Y&A, focusing on school coordinators’ reflections on the intervention’s fit to their schools and the student-driven approach, and we assess the three-step implementation strategy. The study is based on telephone interviews with coordinators (n = 7) from schools that participated in all three years and participant observations of four workshops (a total of approximately 250 participating students). Results were generated through an abductive analysis. Seven schools continued the intervention throughout the three years and adapted it to fit their priorities. The student-driven approach was perceived to be valuable, but few student-driven activities were initiated. Teacher support seemed crucial to support students in starting up activities and acting as peer mentors in workshops. The three-step implementation strategy proved valuable due to the peer-approach and the possibility of gradual adaptation. In future similar initiatives, it is important to address how the adequate staff support of students can be facilitated.

show abstract

Study protocol of the Healthy High School study: a school-based intervention to improve well-being among high school students in Denmark

Cited by 19 publications

References 57 publications

School Coordinators’ Perceptions of Organizational Readiness Is Associated with Implementation Fidelity in a Smoking Prevention Program: Findings from the X:IT II Study

School Coordinators’ Perceptions of Organizational Readiness Is Associated with Implementation Fidelity in a Smoking Prevention Program: Findings from the X:IT II Study

What characterizes schools and students participating in health promoting school-based intervention studies? Findings from the healthy high school study

Adaptation, Student Participation and Gradual Withdrawal by Researchers as Sustainability Strategies in the High School-Based Young and Active Intervention: School Coordinators’ Perspectives

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About