Believe it or not, it can take up to 17 years for evidence to be put into practice. Luckily, over the past decades, there has been increased effort to ensure research is translated into action through knowledge translation, the umbrella term used for all activities done to bridge the gap between what we know and what we do.
UpLift, a School-University-Community partnership supporting the health and learning of children and youth using a Health Promoting Schools approach, is an excellent local example of how years of research evidence led to advancing school health promotion in Nova Scotia, Canada. Health Promoting Schools is a globally recognized model, that has been implemented formally in Nova Scotia since 2005 to create healthy school settings where students can learn, grow, and play. UpLift focuses on enhancing this model through efforts grounded in years of local research and evidence.
The benefits of Health Promoting Schools in Nova Scotia dates back to 2003, where a province-wide research study called Children’s Lifestyle And School-performance Study (CLASS) showed that students who were part of a Health Promoting School had lower rates of being overweight and obesity, better eating behaviours, and moved more compared to students attending other schools in the province. These findings propelled investment in school health promotion across Nova Scotia, and by 2011, a follow-up Children’s Lifestyle and School-performance Study (CLASS II) was conducted to see if these efforts had made a difference to students’ health. Although modest improvements in diet quality were found, implementation barriers were subsequently identified that pointed to the need to build capacity for school health promotion efforts.
Additional research identified the need to pay more attention to capacity building, supportive cultures, partnership development and student engagement. This extensive body of research illustrates how context impacts school health promotion, and the importance of engaging student voice and undertaking innovative knowledge sharing activities.
However, research does not action itself, and for this evidence to be put into practice, knowledge translation strategies have to be put in place to bridge what we know with what we do. The creation of the UpLift partnership provided this action through enhanced funding, building on existing resources and implementing strategies directly informed by evidence in five key areas: 1) Youth, School and Community Engagement, 2) Planning and Evaluaiton, 3) Partnership and Leadership, 4) Capacity Building, and 5) Knowledg Exchange. Sound familiar?
The research outlined here provides a snapshot of the many examples of how evidence guided the development and evolution of the UpLift parnership in Nova Scotia. UpLift is now in its fourth year of implementation, and is continuing to the show the impact of using a research-informed, student engaged approach to enhance school health promotion. When it comes to providing our children and youth with a healthy school environment, 17 years is far too long. Action is needed now because we already know what works.
