ArticleThe Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine2019
School Food and Physical Activity Environment: A Longitudinal Analysis of Four School Districts in New Jersey.
Article in The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Towards a comprehensive school food environment audit tool in Canada: a systematic review of school food environment measurements and nutrition determinants.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Testing an adapted obesity prevention intervention in under resourced schools: a pilot clustered randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Children's insights into nutritional culture and habits in Abu Dhabi.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Competitive food availability in schools before and after the onset of COVID-19: an interrupted time series analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Drinking Water Availability in Public Schools: An Assessment of Four New Jersey School Districts.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- The relationship between community food environment around schools and student meal participation: the role of school CEP participation status.BMC medicine · 2024Article
- Food Environments Within and Outside of Schools Play a Critical Role in Curtailing the Rise in Obesity among School-Aged Children over Time.The Journal of nutrition · 2023Article
- Improvements in School Food Offerings over Time: Variation by School Characteristics.Nutrients · 2023Article
- Farm to school programs in low-income, high minority K-12 schools in New Jersey before and after implementation of the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act.Journal of hunger & environmental nutrition · 2023Article
- School Garden Prevalence Before and After the Implementation of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.The Journal of school health · 2022Article
- Role of Built Environments on Physical Activity and Health Promotion: A Review and Policy Insights.Frontiers in public health · 2022Review
- Do Parental Perceptions of the Nutritional Quality of School Meals Reflect the Food Environment in Public Schools?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Parental Perceptions of the Nutritional Quality of School Meals and Student Meal Participation: Before and After the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act.Journal of nutrition education and behavior · 2020Article
- Healthier school food and physical activity environments are associated with lower student body mass index.Preventive medicine reports · 2020Article
- Food Environment Typology: Advancing an Expanded Definition, Framework, and Methodological Approach for Improved Characterization of Wild, Cultivated, and Built Food Environments toward Sustainable Diets.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
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5 authors.
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Abstract
purposeExposures to favorable environments in childhood, including those in schools, are associated with healthy habits among children. In this study, we developed a series of indices aimed at measuring students' exposure to different dimensions of the school food and physical activity (PA) environment. We implemented these indices to investigate how different aspects of the school food and PA environment changed over time and examined their correspondence with known changes in relevant policies and programs.
methodsAll public schools (n= 141) in four school districts in New Jersey provided detailed food and PA environment data for each school year from 2010-2011 to 2015-2016. Seven food environment indices, three PA environment indices, and two additional indices that capture health-promoting initiatives at the school level and at the state or federal level were developed.
resultsAlthough the school PA environment largely remained unchanged, several dimensions of the school food environment changed between 2010-2011 and 2015-2016. Overall, the number of healthy items increased over time in vending machines (p < .001), a la carte (p < .05), or through reimbursable school lunches (p < .001); decreases in number of unhealthy items were only detected in school lunches (p < .05). For most food indices, both the number of items offered and the trend over time varied across school levels.
conclusionsSchools are a key venue for implementing policy and environment interventions aimed to promote healthy behaviors. Indices developed from easy-to-use survey questions captured multiple dimensions of the school food and PA environments and were sensitive to policy changes over time.
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