Do Schools That Screen for Body Mass Index Have Recommended Safeguards in Place?

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Sch Nurs
• Personal Author:
  Sliwa, Sarah A. ; Brener, Nancy D. ; Lundeen, Elizabeth A. ; Lee, Sarah M.
• Description:
  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that schools adopt 10 safeguards before launching a body mass index (BMI) screening program; however, little is known about schools' safeguard adoption. Authors identified questions from the 2014 School Health Policies and Practices Study that aligned with 4 of the 10 safeguards to estimate safeguard prevalence among schools that screened students for BMI (40.7%, | = 223). Among these schools, 3.1% had all four safeguards and 56.5% had none or one. The most prevalent safeguard was having reliable and accurate equipment (54.1%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [46.1, 62.1]). Providing staff with appropriate expertise and training was the least prevalent; respondents in 26.4% (95% CI [17.1, 35.6]) of schools received recent training on weight status assessment, weight management, and eating disorder identification. School-based BMI screening is common, but adopting multiple recommended safeguards is not. Absent these safeguards, BMI screening programs may fall short of intended outcomes and potentially incur unintended consequences.
• Subjects:
  Body Mass Index Child Child Welfare Female Humans Male Mass Screening Pediatric Obesity School Health Services School Nursing Schools

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• Keywords:
  BMI Health/Wellness Obesity Policies/Procedures Screening/Risk Identification
• Source:
  J Sch Nurs. 35(4):299-308
• Pubmed ID:
  29482425
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC6710833
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  35
• Issue:
  4
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6a54ae0b3494d2061f6f43095f46d130d1a64483e9c4749f765eb93a7e3cf5bedfa33b90a190392a9ef78a3b59cec0216c94caf98731eea105eab77a3cf35527
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/81048/cdc_81048_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 349.35 KB ]