ABSTRACT
Background Policy that targets the school food environment
has been advanced as one way to increase the
availability of healthy food at schools and healthy food
choice by students. Although both state- and district-level
policy initiatives have focused on school nutrition standards,
it remains to be seen whether these policies translate
into healthy food practices at the school level, where
student behavior will be impacted.
Objective To examine whether state- and district-level nutrition
policies addressing junk food in school vending
machines and school stores were associated with less
junk food in school vending machines and school stores.
Junk food was defined as foods and beverages with low
nutrient density that provide calories primarily through
fats and added sugars.
Design A cross-sectional study design was used to assess
self-report data collected by computer-assisted telephone
interviews or self-administered mail questionnaires from
state-, district-, and school-level respondents participating
in the School Health Policies and Programs Study
2006. The School Health Policies and Programs Study,
administered every 6 years since 1994 by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, is considered the largest,
most comprehensive assessment of school health policies
and programs in the United States.
Subjects/setting A nationally representative sample (n563)
of public elementary, middle, and high schools was studied.