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SHEUNews - November 2002
SHEU provides research, publications and survey services for those concerned with the healthy development of young people including: LEAs, DHAs, PCTs, DATs, NHSS schemes, Children’s Fund projects, Community groups, Teachers, Health Professionals, Govt. and Univ. depts., and the media.
Food & Nutrition – Breakfast
8% in ‘your school survey’ had nothing for breakfast; while 21% had at most a drink for breakfast. 7% had a cooked breakfast on the day of the survey. Our large annual samples typically show an increasing value for 'nothing at all' with increasing age, a trend which endures throughout the teenage years. The chart shows the percentages having different types of breakfast.
The category 'Conventional' means at least one of cereal; toast or bread; cooked breakfast; fruit or a breakfast bar. ‘Only snacks’ means: chocolate bar; sweets or crisp-type snack.
The tables below give a breakdown by year and gender of those having nothing or only a drink. By the age of 15-16 as many as 18% of girls report having nothing at all at breakfast time and a further 19% report having only a drink.
Identify needs and allocate resources most effectively
This example can only convey a limited amount of information and does not enable the full range and depth of the data to be displayed.
Please contact the Schools Health Education Unit, Tel: 01392 667272, to discover how ‘your school’ survey results may be presented in ways that would help identify needs and allocate resources most effectively.
Cambridge Schools
Survey Health Promoting Schools Strategy
The Schools Health Education Unit has a long history of survey work in Cambridgeshire. A partner from a few years ago was Ruth Joyce, who is now working for the Home Office on the Blueprint Project. With links made to new contacts, Jon Pratt, Sue Ager and Diane Fenner in the area, some excellent work has been achieved in primary schools over the last few years. More recently a large scale survey has been carried out, with all secondary schools in Cambridge and Peterborough invited to take part. Normally 100 pupils from years 8 & 10 would be included in a survey, 200 altogether from each school. With a new service now in place – the Health Risk Appraisal [HRA] – each pupil can get their own individual report. Therefore it was decided to ask schools to use every pupil in the two year groups selected. The HRA report allows young people to find out how healthy their way of life is by having it assessed for healthiness on four separate counts, exercise, general health, diet and smoking / drinking. The last school reports have just gone out. Dr David Regis will be working to produce reports for each Primary Care Trust in Cambridge and Peterborough. Some new questions have been added, these are: active citizenship, mobile phone bullying and sources of health information. This survey will produce a superb dataset which will be of great utility in years to come. An interesting challenge for SHEU was to produce a report comparing rural Cambridgeshire schools with inner city schools from different cities in order to see how home and health habits compare. This will have links with geography and citizenship as well as PSHE.
Healthy Schools Database
Design and testing
The Unit has been invited to design an Access database for an LEA in which to keep records of Healthy Schools Award and Health Education training for schools and others. The database is currently being tested. We can provide screenshots or a report if you wish. If you are interested in benefiting from our experience of database design, please contact Dr David Regis.
TV research
‘Screenblock’
Adults often worry about the amount of television young people watch. SHEU have been prompted to monitor the issue again by the firm ‘Screenblock’, who are interested to find out from young people themselves if the amount of TV they watch is discussed with parents and managed appropriately. We have produced an online questionnaire for young people and teachers. A class of pupils can also complete this questionnaire. The school will first need to register with us but the service is provided without charge. Dr David Regis (01392 667272) can provide further information.
Food & Nutrition – Breakfast
8% in ‘your school survey’ had nothing for breakfast; while 21% had at most a drink for breakfast. 7% had a cooked breakfast on the day of the survey. Our large annual samples typically show an increasing value for 'nothing at all' with increasing age, a trend which endures throughout the teenage years. The chart shows the percentages having different types of breakfast.
The category 'Conventional' means at least one of cereal; toast or bread; cooked breakfast; fruit or a breakfast bar. ‘Only snacks’ means: chocolate bar; sweets or crisp-type snack.
The tables below give a breakdown by year and gender of those having nothing or only a drink. By the age of 15-16 as many as 18% of girls report having nothing at all at breakfast time and a further 19% report having only a drink.
Identify needs and allocate resources most effectively
This example can only convey a limited amount of information and does not enable the full range and depth of the data to be displayed.
Please contact the Schools Health Education Unit, Tel: 01392 667272, to discover how ‘your school’ survey results may be presented in ways that would help identify needs and allocate resources most effectively.
Cambridge Schools
Survey Health Promoting Schools Strategy
The Schools Health Education Unit has a long history of survey work in Cambridgeshire. A partner from a few years ago was Ruth Joyce, who is now working for the Home Office on the Blueprint Project. With links made to new contacts, Jon Pratt, Sue Ager and Diane Fenner in the area, some excellent work has been achieved in primary schools over the last few years. More recently a large scale survey has been carried out, with all secondary schools in Cambridge and Peterborough invited to take part. Normally 100 pupils from years 8 & 10 would be included in a survey, 200 altogether from each school. With a new service now in place – the Health Risk Appraisal [HRA] – each pupil can get their own individual report. Therefore it was decided to ask schools to use every pupil in the two year groups selected. The HRA report allows young people to find out how healthy their way of life is by having it assessed for healthiness on four separate counts, exercise, general health, diet and smoking / drinking. The last school reports have just gone out. Dr David Regis will be working to produce reports for each Primary Care Trust in Cambridge and Peterborough. Some new questions have been added, these are: active citizenship, mobile phone bullying and sources of health information. This survey will produce a superb dataset which will be of great utility in years to come. An interesting challenge for SHEU was to produce a report comparing rural Cambridgeshire schools with inner city schools from different cities in order to see how home and health habits compare. This will have links with geography and citizenship as well as PSHE.
Healthy Schools Database
Design and testing
The Unit has been invited to design an Access database for an LEA in which to keep records of Healthy Schools Award and Health Education training for schools and others. The database is currently being tested. We can provide screenshots or a report if you wish. If you are interested in benefiting from our experience of database design, please contact Dr David Regis.
TV research
‘Screenblock’
Adults often worry about the amount of television young people watch. SHEU have been prompted to monitor the issue again by the firm ‘Screenblock’, who are interested to find out from young people themselves if the amount of TV they watch is discussed with parents and managed appropriately. We have produced an online questionnaire for young people and teachers. A class of pupils can also complete this questionnaire. The school will first need to register with us but the service is provided without charge. Dr David Regis (01392 667272) can provide further information.
New service development
Further Education Questionnaire
As a development of the Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire, the Unit is compiling a new survey instrument for use in the Further Education [FE] Sector. SHEU has been working alongside professionals from the FE sector in the development of this new form of survey. Trialing of the survey in a number of areas in the country will enable a final set of questions to be formulated. Following work carried out in partnership with FE colleges in Oxford and Exeter, Dr David Regis, SHEU's Research Manager, has gained useful insights into the processes involved in constructing a rigorous new research instrument.
PCTs and DATs
An update
Work undertaken by the Unit continues to support needs assessments that PCTs and DATs have to make in relation to young people. A number of LEAs and Health Authorities have utilised the HRBQ service which actively involve the local PCTs and DATs. As the stages of structural development are different in both organisations, we are working hard to inform them about their colleagues who have benefited from working in partnership with SHEU.
Early Primary Questionnaire
An evolving service
SHEU has provided services for primary schools since 1977 and developed the Primary Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire in 1988. Since then a number of initiatives have evolved including ‘Travelwise’ – safer journeys to school, and ‘Preparing for Life after Primary School’ a resource for primary teachers. The ‘Early Primary Questionnaire’ followed the lengthy research and development stages needed to ensure reliability and validity for a survey instrument. SHEU has been asked for some time to offer an instrument to younger pupils. The result is a very simple tool that picks out some of the questions from the primary version so that schools can have a picture of their pupil population from Year 2 to Year 6. Trials of this new questionnaire have been successfully completed and the latest version has been used across the country including Devon, London and the North West.
Swindon LEA
Healthy School Audits
Recently the Unit has been processing healthy schools audit surveys for Swindon LEA. The audit assesses the perceptions of staff and parents with regard to a school. Our role involved data processing, reporting and designing charts. These audits can complement the work done around the Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire [HRBQ]. If you are interested in utilising the SHEU to analyse and produce reports from your own questionnaires, please contact us.
Yorkshire Drugs Study
Evaluating drugs education
SHEU have recently been asked to undertake a project for the Hull and East Riding DAT in which the drugs education strategy for schools is to be studied. There is a lot of good and diverse work going on, although this makes the task of evaluation more complex. As well as some high-impact local theatre and other initiatives, pupils also receive drugs information from school lessons, leaflets and the internet. Primary and secondary schools in two LEAs will be featured in the project, with pupils and teachers completing a questionnaire in each phase. In the study young people will be questioned about their knowledge, attitudes and experience of drugs such as alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs and recollection and assessment of drugs education. The teachers will be asked for input with regard to the strengths and limitations of their current work in drugs education and PSHE.
‘Young People in 2001’
Out now
Widely reported in the media, our latest report ‘Young People in 2001’ is now available. It is a unique contemporary archive of young people. It reports the answers to 115 health related behaviour questions given by 15,881 young people, between the ages of 10 and 15. They tell us about what they do at home, at school and with their friends. The data has been collected from 334 primary and secondary schools across the United Kingdom. It is possible that schools in your area, collected data that have contributed to this unique report. The report is divided into nine sections and covers the following topics: food choices & weight control, doctor & dentist, health & safety, family & home, legal & illegal drugs, money, exercise & sport, and social & personal. 556,000 young people Annually since 1986, the Unit has published the collected Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire results. Data from more than 556,000 young people between the ages of 8 and 18, have now been recorded since the questionnaire's genesis in 1976. More than 4,100 separate school surveys have been carried out, some schools repeating surveys of their pupils on five occasions. The data banks at SHEU are a unique resource that are consulted by a wide range of groups and individuals including Local Education Authorities, Health Authorities, Government Offices, University departments, schools, teachers and other interested individuals. The cost of ‘Young People in 2001’ is £45 including p&p. Please make cheques payable to the Schools Health Education Unit. [Order form]
1991 and 2001
Young People’s behaviour
The habits and lifestyles of British children have changed a great deal during the past decade and our work has highlighted these changes. A small selection of data is shown below taken from 'Young People in 2001’ and 'Young People in 1991’(contact SHEU for photocopies).
Weight
Boys and girls in 2001, were keener to lose weight when compared with those questioned ten years before. This was particularly prevalent in girls, with on average, a rise of 8% recorded over this period. Of the Year 10 females analysed, most of those wanting to lose weight were within the limits of ‘healthy’ weight.
TV and homework
The proportion of 14-15 year old pupils that watched television for up to 4 hours after school had doubled in the case of boys, to 18%, and more than doubled in the case of girls, to 19%, over the course of the decade. Evidence from pupils in Year 8 showed that a similar situation was occurring. In 1991, 21% of Year 8 boys did no homework ‘after school yesterday’. In 2001 this figure was 31%. However, the trend since 1983 (‘Young People in 1998 and looking back as far as 1983’) shows a small overall increase in the percentage of pupils that spend time doing homework but the data fluctuates. More research is needed to determine if recent data reveals a new trend. However it is clear that more girls than boys do homework and they spend longer at it.
Drugs
More pupils are now smokers. In 1991 3% of boys and 6% of girls in Year 8 smoked between 1-10 cigarettes in the week before the questioned was asked. In 2001 this figure had risen to 5% in the boys and 9% in girls. In 1991 2% of girls in Year 8 and 7% in Year 10 consumed between 7-10 units in the 7 days leading up to the question being asked. In 2001, the figure for Year 8 girls was the same but 10% of Year 10 girls were now consuming this level of alcohol.
Fit to Succeed
Activity & achievement
The Fit to Succeed project started in 1999 after results from an initial pilot study suggested that the scheme could have an effect on young people's participation in physical activity. It was also suggested a link between physical activity and academic achievement existed. Teachers were, at the time, struggling to motivate 'lethargic' pupils to reach their academic potential, and growing evidence of children's 'couch potato' lifestyles was obviously not helping. SHEU carried out school surveys, which were repeated 6 and 12 months later, to act as a monitoring tool. Data from the survey informed local decision-making on youth sports development priorities and programmes.
Right Fit
Angela Balding, SHEU Survey Manager, has been closely involved with the establishment of the project and development of the survey services and in her account of recent events says, "I have been very busy working on the latest developments for Fit to Succeed. The project’s major sponsor, Right Fit – a partnership between GlaxoSmithKline and Barnardos – is coming to the end of the period of support later this year, so there is an increased urgency to produce reports for key groups. In November I took two children from Exeter to a reception at the House of Commons to celebrate the projects that Right Fit had supported, a day that the children thoroughly enjoyed".
Toolkit
Angela continues, "We are writing a toolkit that might be of use to other groups that would be interested in running their own version of Fit to Succeed. Linked to this is an on-line version of the monitoring questionnaire that schools or groups can register to use. We have had a number of schools in Devon setting up and running sessions using the questionnaire. Pupils get immediate feedback, and the opportunity to visit the age-related LifeBytes and Galaxy-H websites".
Food Advertising
Angela was recently a guest speaker at the Food Advertising Unit’s annual conference. This year conference theme was, ‘Promoting Healthier Lifestyles’. Also speaking was Debra Shipley MP who is attempting to ban all food advertising to the under 5’s.
Conference
The Fit to Succeed project team is also holding its own conference, February 7th 2002, to disseminate the good practice seen in the Fit to Succeed schools. For more information please contact Angela Balding at SHEU.
Public Health Observatories
Regional data
We have been working with two Public Health Observatories, to collate their existing HRBQ survey data from their region [South West and Eastern]. Over the years many thousands of pupils from these regions have taken part in our surveys and it has been quite complex extracting their data from the databanks. Clear trends are apparent in some of the figures, but we must take into account changes made to the questionnaire and the use of different schools in each wave of the survey.
Volume 20
Education and Health Journal
First published in 1983 by SHEU, the journal has featured a broad range of topics and provided an invaluable resource.The journal is published four times a year and aimed at primary and secondary teachers, healthcare professionals, and others involved with young people’s healthy development. Recent topics included: Refugee children at school and good practices in mental health and social care; The educational benefits of videogames; Binge drinking, and STI infections and young people.
Further details are available.
Further Education Questionnaire
As a development of the Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire, the Unit is compiling a new survey instrument for use in the Further Education [FE] Sector. SHEU has been working alongside professionals from the FE sector in the development of this new form of survey. Trialing of the survey in a number of areas in the country will enable a final set of questions to be formulated. Following work carried out in partnership with FE colleges in Oxford and Exeter, Dr David Regis, SHEU's Research Manager, has gained useful insights into the processes involved in constructing a rigorous new research instrument.
PCTs and DATs
An update
Work undertaken by the Unit continues to support needs assessments that PCTs and DATs have to make in relation to young people. A number of LEAs and Health Authorities have utilised the HRBQ service which actively involve the local PCTs and DATs. As the stages of structural development are different in both organisations, we are working hard to inform them about their colleagues who have benefited from working in partnership with SHEU.
Early Primary Questionnaire
An evolving service
SHEU has provided services for primary schools since 1977 and developed the Primary Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire in 1988. Since then a number of initiatives have evolved including ‘Travelwise’ – safer journeys to school, and ‘Preparing for Life after Primary School’ a resource for primary teachers. The ‘Early Primary Questionnaire’ followed the lengthy research and development stages needed to ensure reliability and validity for a survey instrument. SHEU has been asked for some time to offer an instrument to younger pupils. The result is a very simple tool that picks out some of the questions from the primary version so that schools can have a picture of their pupil population from Year 2 to Year 6. Trials of this new questionnaire have been successfully completed and the latest version has been used across the country including Devon, London and the North West.
Swindon LEA
Healthy School Audits
Recently the Unit has been processing healthy schools audit surveys for Swindon LEA. The audit assesses the perceptions of staff and parents with regard to a school. Our role involved data processing, reporting and designing charts. These audits can complement the work done around the Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire [HRBQ]. If you are interested in utilising the SHEU to analyse and produce reports from your own questionnaires, please contact us.
Yorkshire Drugs Study
Evaluating drugs education
SHEU have recently been asked to undertake a project for the Hull and East Riding DAT in which the drugs education strategy for schools is to be studied. There is a lot of good and diverse work going on, although this makes the task of evaluation more complex. As well as some high-impact local theatre and other initiatives, pupils also receive drugs information from school lessons, leaflets and the internet. Primary and secondary schools in two LEAs will be featured in the project, with pupils and teachers completing a questionnaire in each phase. In the study young people will be questioned about their knowledge, attitudes and experience of drugs such as alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs and recollection and assessment of drugs education. The teachers will be asked for input with regard to the strengths and limitations of their current work in drugs education and PSHE.
‘Young People in 2001’
Out now
Widely reported in the media, our latest report ‘Young People in 2001’ is now available. It is a unique contemporary archive of young people. It reports the answers to 115 health related behaviour questions given by 15,881 young people, between the ages of 10 and 15. They tell us about what they do at home, at school and with their friends. The data has been collected from 334 primary and secondary schools across the United Kingdom. It is possible that schools in your area, collected data that have contributed to this unique report. The report is divided into nine sections and covers the following topics: food choices & weight control, doctor & dentist, health & safety, family & home, legal & illegal drugs, money, exercise & sport, and social & personal. 556,000 young people Annually since 1986, the Unit has published the collected Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire results. Data from more than 556,000 young people between the ages of 8 and 18, have now been recorded since the questionnaire's genesis in 1976. More than 4,100 separate school surveys have been carried out, some schools repeating surveys of their pupils on five occasions. The data banks at SHEU are a unique resource that are consulted by a wide range of groups and individuals including Local Education Authorities, Health Authorities, Government Offices, University departments, schools, teachers and other interested individuals. The cost of ‘Young People in 2001’ is £45 including p&p. Please make cheques payable to the Schools Health Education Unit. [Order form]
1991 and 2001
Young People’s behaviour
The habits and lifestyles of British children have changed a great deal during the past decade and our work has highlighted these changes. A small selection of data is shown below taken from 'Young People in 2001’ and 'Young People in 1991’(contact SHEU for photocopies).
Weight
Boys and girls in 2001, were keener to lose weight when compared with those questioned ten years before. This was particularly prevalent in girls, with on average, a rise of 8% recorded over this period. Of the Year 10 females analysed, most of those wanting to lose weight were within the limits of ‘healthy’ weight.
TV and homework
The proportion of 14-15 year old pupils that watched television for up to 4 hours after school had doubled in the case of boys, to 18%, and more than doubled in the case of girls, to 19%, over the course of the decade. Evidence from pupils in Year 8 showed that a similar situation was occurring. In 1991, 21% of Year 8 boys did no homework ‘after school yesterday’. In 2001 this figure was 31%. However, the trend since 1983 (‘Young People in 1998 and looking back as far as 1983’) shows a small overall increase in the percentage of pupils that spend time doing homework but the data fluctuates. More research is needed to determine if recent data reveals a new trend. However it is clear that more girls than boys do homework and they spend longer at it.
Drugs
More pupils are now smokers. In 1991 3% of boys and 6% of girls in Year 8 smoked between 1-10 cigarettes in the week before the questioned was asked. In 2001 this figure had risen to 5% in the boys and 9% in girls. In 1991 2% of girls in Year 8 and 7% in Year 10 consumed between 7-10 units in the 7 days leading up to the question being asked. In 2001, the figure for Year 8 girls was the same but 10% of Year 10 girls were now consuming this level of alcohol.
Fit to Succeed
Activity & achievement
The Fit to Succeed project started in 1999 after results from an initial pilot study suggested that the scheme could have an effect on young people's participation in physical activity. It was also suggested a link between physical activity and academic achievement existed. Teachers were, at the time, struggling to motivate 'lethargic' pupils to reach their academic potential, and growing evidence of children's 'couch potato' lifestyles was obviously not helping. SHEU carried out school surveys, which were repeated 6 and 12 months later, to act as a monitoring tool. Data from the survey informed local decision-making on youth sports development priorities and programmes.
Right Fit
Angela Balding, SHEU Survey Manager, has been closely involved with the establishment of the project and development of the survey services and in her account of recent events says, "I have been very busy working on the latest developments for Fit to Succeed. The project’s major sponsor, Right Fit – a partnership between GlaxoSmithKline and Barnardos – is coming to the end of the period of support later this year, so there is an increased urgency to produce reports for key groups. In November I took two children from Exeter to a reception at the House of Commons to celebrate the projects that Right Fit had supported, a day that the children thoroughly enjoyed".
Toolkit
Angela continues, "We are writing a toolkit that might be of use to other groups that would be interested in running their own version of Fit to Succeed. Linked to this is an on-line version of the monitoring questionnaire that schools or groups can register to use. We have had a number of schools in Devon setting up and running sessions using the questionnaire. Pupils get immediate feedback, and the opportunity to visit the age-related LifeBytes and Galaxy-H websites".
Food Advertising
Angela was recently a guest speaker at the Food Advertising Unit’s annual conference. This year conference theme was, ‘Promoting Healthier Lifestyles’. Also speaking was Debra Shipley MP who is attempting to ban all food advertising to the under 5’s.
Conference
The Fit to Succeed project team is also holding its own conference, February 7th 2002, to disseminate the good practice seen in the Fit to Succeed schools. For more information please contact Angela Balding at SHEU.
Public Health Observatories
Regional data
We have been working with two Public Health Observatories, to collate their existing HRBQ survey data from their region [South West and Eastern]. Over the years many thousands of pupils from these regions have taken part in our surveys and it has been quite complex extracting their data from the databanks. Clear trends are apparent in some of the figures, but we must take into account changes made to the questionnaire and the use of different schools in each wave of the survey.
Volume 20
Education and Health Journal
First published in 1983 by SHEU, the journal has featured a broad range of topics and provided an invaluable resource.The journal is published four times a year and aimed at primary and secondary teachers, healthcare professionals, and others involved with young people’s healthy development. Recent topics included: Refugee children at school and good practices in mental health and social care; The educational benefits of videogames; Binge drinking, and STI infections and young people.
Further details are available.