Promoting school health education: Examining the rose of a statewide conference for school and community leaders

Improving the delivery of school health education may well be linked to the inclusion of and commitment from high-ranking decision makers from schools and youth organizations, This study examined the role of a statewide school health summit in promoting health education among representatives from state and community organizations, We conducted the study in two phases: (1) development and testing of a measuring instrument, and (2) role examination via conference assessment. Overall, the measurement instrument helped us investigate two areas: the inclination of an individual leader of a health organization to promote organizational changes to assist school health education and the background of a participant in school health education, which affects his/her likelihood to take action, Three factors ('Participant Awareness and Compatibility', 'Draft Plan Development' and 'Summit Experiences and Satisfaction') were found to be important predictors ofleaders' 'Future Action' and 'Advocate Impact' (P < 0.01), Future interventions targeted to influence health, education and social service professionals' support and adoption of school health education should be structured to reinforce these three variables.