Collaborative Research Infrastructure to Transform School Health

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): School settings provide important opportunities to influence the health of children and to address some of the inequalities in access to health promoting environments that lead to disparities in children's health. However, the list of evidence-based school health initiatives is limited, and there are many barriers to conducting research in school settings. In general, public schools do not have the resources to conduct the kind of research that is necessary to determine if school health initiatives are truly effective, and university researchers may not fully understand the "real world" determinants of student health. The goal of this initiative is to transform the way that health science research is conducted in public schools. Specifically, the project will build a sustainable, long term collaborative research infrastructure between the Seattle Public Schools (SPS) and the University of Washington (UW). Currently, SPS health leaders for nutrition, physical activity, health education and health services work in separate departments and use independent data systems. There is also minimal integration of the work of health leaders with the work of the district's Research Evaluation and Assessment unit. At the UW, the situation is similar; researchers conduct a number of federally supported health-related studies in SPS, but these initiatives are not coordinated across the UW's many schools and departments. This project will use a community-based participatory research approach to form mutually beneficial relationships between interdisciplinary researchers from UW, SPS, local philanthropic organizations, and community advocates. The first aim is to transform the research environments at SPS and UW by building collaborative skills and competencies for conducting coordinated and comprehensive school health research. This will be achieved by engaging and orienting stakeholders, building relationships that foster trust, and establishing a roadmap for ongoing action. The second aim is to build a sustainable health and wellness research infrastructure that will include 1) an ongoing Health Research Leadership Team with members across departments and disciplines at both SPS and UW, and 2) a Data Team that will establish methods for using the district's data for collaborative research. The third aim will be to develop and disseminate an action guide for health and wellness research. The action guide will be used by collaborative special interest research teams to formulate research questions and develop SPS-UW research proposals. The planning for this project was a joint effort between UW researchers and SPS staff; the project is designed to provide the kinds of research and evidence that school health leaders need to support their work. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Schools are an important setting to influence the health of children and youth. A wide variety of health and fitness-related initiatives are in place at public schools, yet schools and researchers lack the systems to measure their impact. This project will build a sustainable, long term collaborative research structure that can be used as a model by academic researchers and schools across the country.