A Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Approach to Support Student Physical Activity and Nutrition: Introduction/Methods

Background: We introduce the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child approach to supporting student and school staff physical activity and nutrition and describe the methods used to generate the evidence synthesized across the special issue articles. Methods: A 2-phase literature review search included a search of systematic reviews (2010-2018) for individual qualifying articles (Phase 1) and a search for individual articles on topics not addressed by a review (2010-2020) or that needed an update because they were in a review that was older (2010-2016) or showed insufficient evidence (Phase 2). Research librarians developed search strategies. In each phase, pairs of subject matter experts applied criteria to review abstracts and full-text articles and extracted data using standardized forms. We included 314 articles, describing 293 studies. Findings: Most of the included studies looked at elementary or secondary school level interventions; 51% were rated poor quality, and few took place in a rural setting. Implications for School Health Policy, Practice, and Equity: Most of the identified studies engaged majority minority or racially/ethnically diverse schools, suggesting that these interventions are feasible in a variety of settings. Conclusions: This collection of 10 articles identifies evidence-based interventions, gaps in research, and implications for health equity.