On Track to Wellness: Nurse-Led Public Health Education for Children.

Purpose: To improve the health outcomes of children through the implementation of On Track to Wellness.

Design: A repeated cross-sectional study design with a community-based participatory approach.

Methods: On Track to Wellness is a nurse-led, health education program delivered to at-risk populations to simultaneously provide community health experience for nursing students and active health education for children . Children completed the Kids Activity and Nutrition Questionnaire (KAN-Q) and Perceived Stress Scale for Kids (PeSSKi). Parents completed the Behavior and Attitudes Questionnaire for Healthy Habits (BAQ-HH).

Findings: Children were ages 5-11 and over 20% had a BMI ranked as overweight or obese. The BAQ-HH (75%) and KAN-Q (41%) showed that per day children drank 2 or more sugary drinks (70%) and had 2 or more hours of screen time (40%). PeSSKi revealed that over 40% of children reported feeling helpless when a problem occurred, and approximately 40% had difficulty calming down. Parents reported the following barriers to family health: 1) affordability of healthy food, 2) ineligibility for food stamps, and 3) sugar. They reported the need for assistance with : 1) nutrition education, 2) limiting screens, 3) ability to buy healthy food and 4) safe places to work out with their children.

Conclusions: This program: 1) educated children on healthy habits surrounding nutrition, fitness, stress management, and prevention of accidental poisonings and 2) provided nursing students with experience in delivering public health interventions in the community.

Clinical evidence: This program can be widely implemented through partnerships between nursing schools and surrounding communities.