Young Person’s Lifestyle Project
Aims
The aim of this project is to explore the enablers and barriers of embedding a healthy school culture in order to co-create and evaluate a series of processes and activities to positively impact the lifestyle choices of adolescents.
Funded by: All Saints Educational Trust
Brief description of the work
Research has shown that poor diet and inactivity tend to go hand in hand and together contribute to the growing problem of obesity. Recent government figures show that 35% of adolescents (aged 11–15) in the UK are considered overweight or obese. Schools are viewed as good settings in which to encourage and promote physical activity and balanced diets to children and adolescents. However, well-developed, evidence-based programmes which enable secondary schools to support their pupils in making healthy diet and physical activity choices are needed. The current work is part of a fellowship and aims to develop a programme of activities with secondary school, students, families and their community to support them to create a health-promoting environment to support adolescents in making healthier choices. We have worked with a young persons’ advisory group (YPAG) comprising of secondary school pupils (11-14-year-olds) who have assisted and advised us on the development work and how best to conduct it.
The ASET Fellowship (2017-2020):
Phase 1: To review the current literature on the effectiveness of Health Promoting School approach to positively impact diet and physical activity outcomes of pupils attending secondary schools (11-18-year-olds) and the underlying processes which support implementation.
Phase 2: To understand the enablers and barriers to creating a health-promoting school culture, to support lifestyle behaviours, particularly at the time of transition to secondary school.
Phase 3: To develop a programme of processes and activities, working closely with one secondary school, to support a health-promoting environment.
Phase 4: To pilot the process/activities developed in phase 3.
Publications:
McHugh CA, Lloyd J, Logan S, Wyatt K. Implementing a set of health promoting processes in English secondary schools: a comparative case study. Public Health in Practice 2021. https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S2666-5352(21)00139-7
McHugh CA, Lloyd J, Logan S, Wyatt K. Enablers and barriers English secondary schools face in promoting healthy diet and physical activity behaviours. Health Promotion International 2021. https://academic.oup.com/heapro/advance-article/doi/10.1093/heapro/daab148/6365860
McHugh CA, Hurst A, Lloyd J, Logan S, Wyatt K. The impact of the World Health Organisation Health Promoting Schools framework approach on diet and physical activity behaviours of adolescents in secondary schools: A systematic review. Public Health 2020. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033350620300378
McHugh CA, Anderson L, Lloyd J, Wyatt K, Logan S (2019). Influences on diet and physical activity choices of 11–13-year-olds in a school setting. Health Education Journal 2019. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0017896919826606
For more information contact: Ms. Camilla Forbes (McHugh) (ASET Saxton Fellow); Professor Katrina Wyatt
