Three-Year Improvements in Weight Status and Weight-Related Behaviors in Middle School Students: The Healthy Choices Study

INTRODUCTION: Few dissemination evaluations exist to document the effectiveness of evidence-based childhood obesity interventions outside the research setting. OBJECTIVE: Evaluate Healthy Choices (HC), a multi-component obesity prevention program, by examining school-level changes in weight-related behaviors and weight status and the association of implementation components with odds of overweight/obesity. METHODS: We compared baseline and Year 3 school-level behavioral and weight status outcomes with paired t-tests adjusted for schools’ socio-demographic characteristics. We used generalized estimating equations to examine the odds of overweight/obesity associated with program components. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Consecutive sample of 45 of 51 middle schools participating in the HC program with complete baseline and follow-up survey data including a subsample of 35 schools with measured anthropomentry for 5,665 7(th) grade students. INTERVENTION: Schools developed a multi-disciplinary team and implemented an obesity prevention curriculum, before and after school activities, environmental and policy changes and health promotions targeting a 5-2-1 theme: eat ≥ 5 servings/day of fruits and vegetables (FV), watch ≤ 2 hours of television (TV) and participate in ≥ 1 hours/day of physical activity (PA) on most days MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: 1) School-level percent of students achieving targeted behaviors and percent overweight/obese; and 2) individual odds of overweight/obesity. RESULTS: The percent achieving behavioral goals over three years increased significantly for FV: 16.4 to 19.4 (p = 0.001), TV: 53.4 to 58.2 (p = 0.003) and PA: 37.1 to 39.9 (p = 0.02), adjusting for school size, baseline mean age and percent female, non-Hispanic White, and eligible for free and reduced price lunch. In 35 schools with anthropometry, the percent of overweight/obese 7(th) grade students decreased from 42.1 to 38.4 (p = 0.016). Having a team that met the HC definition was associated with lower odds of overweight/obesity (OR = 0.83, CI: 0.71–0.98). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The HC multi-component intervention demonstrated three-year improvements in weight-related behaviors and weight status across diverse middle schools. Team building appears important to the program’s effectiveness.