After-school providers confidence, knowledge, attitudes, and ability to promote health behaviours

Abstract

Comprehensive school health (CSH) is an effective approach to support children’s health and wellbeing. There is a need to extend CSH to the after-school hours to further promote healthy eating (HE) and physical activity (PA). Within after-school settings, care providers influence children’s HE and PA opportunities, but little is known about their role in health promotion interventions. The School’s Out…Let’s Move (SOLMo) intervention provided this opportunity. Providers in intervention and control sites completed surveys pre (n=35) and post (n=37) intervention, with seventeen completed at both time points. Analysis examined changes in awareness, knowledge, confidence, attitude, and behavioural control towards promoting HE and PA, and confidence in leading HE and PA activities. SOLMo providers attitudes towards promoting HE and PA were significantly higher (p<0.05) compared to usual practice providers, as was their confidence to lead HE activities (p<0.05) for five conditions. Results suggest CSH is a promising approach for this setting.