Every day HealthCorps works hard to improve the lives of countless teens. At the same time, our researchers are hard at work exploring what we do from a scientific perspective. What works well? How can we improve? Here’s some of what we have discovered over the years:
School health curricula should help students choose health goals related to the Dietary Guidelines (DG) recommendations addressing obesity. We aimed to identify characteristics associated with choice of DG recommendation items.
In 12 HealthCorps affiliated high schools, students completed a 19-item web-based questionnaire that provided a personalized health-behavior feedback report to guide setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, Time-bound) goals. We examined if gender, weight-status, and personalized feedback report messages were related to student-selected SMART Goals.
Female overweight/obese and obese student had a significant decrease in BMI z-scores
HealthCorps female overweight/obese and obese student had a significant decrease in BMI z-scores (post-pre delta BMI z-score = −0.16 (95%CI = (−0.26, −0.05), p = 0.004 for the former; and = −0.23 (−0.44, −0.03), p = 0.028, for the latter) whereas comparison female counterparts did not.
The HealthCorps students, but not the comparison students, had a significant increase for all knowledge domains except for the breakfast realm, and reported a greater number of significant behavior changes including fruit and vegetable intake and physical activities.
Desert Healthcare District Evaluation
6 % increase in HC vs. 4% decrease by control group during the same period.
The Change in “Number of Servings of vegetables Eaten Yesterday” over School Year.
Study conducted in three schools with 147 students in the comparator group and 248 students in the interventional group over the 2013-14 academic school year.
Benson High School – FIT2LIVE&LEARN HealthCorps Partnership
Average loss of 5 lbs. and 1% body fat in 8 months
Benson High School Case Study conducted by the Benson School District, Portland, OR 2013; Abstract presented at AHA Scientific Session Conference 11.19.14
Desert Healthcare District Evaluation
18% increase over national average* attributable to a 6% decrease-substitution of water for soda in our students.
Distribution of Daily Beverage Consumption in HealthCorps Schools vs. National Average
*Source: CDC 2010 Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report
Study conducted in three schools with 147 students in the comparator group and 248 students in the interventional group over the 2013-14 academic school year.
Desert Healthcare District Evaluation
By the end of the school year, our students had only decreased their adequate sleep (8+hours per night) by 13.7% as opposed to their peers who had a decrease of 31.5%.
Percentage of student getting at least 8 hours sleep every day at start and end of school year.
Study conducted in three schools with 147 students in the comparator group and 248 students in the interventional group over the 2013-14 academic school year.
HealthCorps students participating in its partner Teen Battle Chef cooking program:
Through a partnership with California’s NBA teams — HealthCorps students reported:
Physical Activity +36%
Health Knowledge +11%
Raise your hand, the HealthCorps poll results are in!
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