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The Claxton Elementary School Health Program: Merging Perceptions and Behaviors to Identify Problems
Author(s) -
Landis Suzanne E.,
Janes Cynthia L.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/j.1746-1561.1995.tb07896.x
Subject(s) - medical education , perception , focus group , health care , psychology , community health , school health , population , medicine , family medicine , public health , nursing , environmental health , sociology , political science , neuroscience , anthropology , law
The Claxton Elementary School Health Program was developed to improve the health of a school community in a western North Carolina city of 60,000. Using the principles of Community‐Oriented Primary Care (COPC) in fall 1991, a health advisory board composed of interested parents, teachers, and physicians was organized. A comprehensive needs assessment was implemented, including focus groups with teachers and parents, a self‐administered health behavior survey for children in grades three‐five, and a self‐administered survey of parents' health problems. Teachers, children, and parents agreed on perceived problems requiring attention. The Board then prioritized health problems, selecting nutrition and self‐concept as the most critical areas in which to develop programs. Using target population members to identify needs can be a valuable approach to the development of community‐based programs for improving children's health behaviors.