School promotion of healthful diet and physical activity: impact on learning outcomes and self-reported behavior

The Go For Health Program included classroom health education and environmen-tal changes in school lunch and physical education to foster healthful diet and exercise among elementary school children. Interventions were based on social learning theory and implementation was based on an organizational change strategy for school innova-tions. Two schools were assigned to intervention and two to control conditions. Cogni-tive measures (behavioral capability, self-efficacy, behavioral expectations) and self-reported diet and exercise behavior were assessed at baseline and following interven-tion. Data were analyzed by ANOVA using the student and then the school as the unit of analysis. Statistically significant changes were observed for diet behavioral capabil-ity, self-efficacy, and behavioral expectations, use of salt, and exercise behavioral capability (fourth grade), self-efficacy (fourth grade) and frequency of participation in aerobic activity. The results provide evidence for program impact on learning out-comes and student behavior.