Adolescent mental health and suicide risk remain substantial public health concerns. High pre-COVID rates of poor mental health and suicide-related behaviors have continued to rise, highlighting the need to identify factors that might foster positive mental health outcomes and reduce suicide-related behaviors at population levels. Using CDC's 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, CDC analyzed the prevalence of mental health and suicide risk indicators and their associations with individual-, family-, and school- or community-level protective factors. Prevalence estimates were calculated for each of the mental health and suicide risk indicators by demographic characteristic. Prevalence ratios adjusted for sex, sexual identity, grade, and race and ethnicity were calculated to examine the association between protective factors and mental health and suicide risk indicators. Overall, 39.7% of students experienced persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, 28.5% experienced poor mental health, 20.4% seriously considered attempting suicide, and 9.5% had attempted suicide. Mental health and suicide risk indicators differed by sex, sexual identity, grade, and race and ethnicity. All protective factors were associated with lower prevalence of one or more risk indicators. Findings from this report can serve as a foundation for the advancement of research on protective factors and for the development and implementation of programs, practices, and policies that protect and promote mental health and emotional well-being among youth.

Schools are in a unique position to offer opportunities for students to be physically active throughout the school day and promote health and well-being. However, experiences that threaten safety or perceptions of safety might affect students' physical activity behaviors. Using the 2023 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey, six physical activity behaviors and five negative safety and violence experiences were examined from a nationally representative sample of U.S. high school students. This report updates national estimates for physical activity behaviors overall and by sex, grade, race and ethnicity, and sexual identity. In addition, associations between negative experiences and physical activity behaviors were examined, stratified by sex, via unadjusted and adjusted prevalence ratios. Regardless of negative safety and violence experiences, male students had a higher prevalence of meeting aerobic, muscle-strengthening, and both aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity guidelines compared with female students. In adjusted models among female students, a positive association was observed between being threatened or injured with a weapon at school and meeting the aerobic guideline, meeting the muscle-strengthening guideline, and playing on ≥1 sports team. Among male students, positive associations were observed between witnessing neighborhood violence and meeting the aerobic guideline and the muscle-strengthening guideline. A negative association was observed between attending physical education classes on all 5 days and witnessing neighborhood violence among female students and being bullied electronically among male students. Physical activity might serve as a mechanism that students employ to cope with negative safety and violence experiences. Understanding current physical activity behaviors among students with these negative experiences will be useful for school leaders, teachers, and public health practitioners who influence physical activity infrastructure and programming in schools and work to support safe, supportive, and inclusive school environments for student health. Although future research is needed to further explore these associations, physical activity continues to be an important behavior to prioritize for adolescent health in the school setting.

Sunburn during adolescence increases a person's lifetime skin cancer risk. This study examines the association between sports team participation and sunburn prevalence among U.S. high school students. Using cross-sectional data from the 2021 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, we compared sunburn prevalence among students who participated in one or more sports teams during the past 12 months to those who did not. Nationwide, 64.4% of high school students experienced one or more sunburns during the past 12 months, and 49.1% had played on one or more sports teams during the past 12 months. Sports team participation was associated with higher sunburn prevalence overall (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR], 1.2; 95% CI [1.2, 1.3]) and among female (aPR, 1.2; 95% CI [1.2, 1.3]) and male (aPR, 1.2; 95% CI [1.1, 1.3]) students. Sunburn prevalence is higher among student athletes than those who do not participate on sports teams. Evidence-based organizational policies and practices are available to help keep student athletes sun-safe while allowing them to enjoy the benefits of sports participation. Future research could examine the contexts in which high school students experience sunburn and why student athletes are at an increased risk. Copyright © 2024 by the Dermatology Nurses’ Association.

INTRODUCTION: Employees are often placed within an organization based on their respective roles or duties, which can lead to vertical and horizontal organizational silos. Organizational silos may restrict information, resources, and stymie progress and innovation. This analysis presents a framework to mitigate silos and overcome communication barriers within an organization by increasing collaboration. METHODS: The project team examined results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) 2020 Employee Viewpoint Survey Results and conducted 19 key informant discussions with NCCDPHP employees. Participants were asked to provide feedback on (1) understanding silos in the workplace and (2) best practices for reducing silos and fostering collaboration. A thematic analysis was conducted to understand organizational silos, the motivation to reduce silos, and identify best practices and strategies. RESULTS: Respondents felt that siloing exists at the division and branch levels; however, 95% of respondents were motivated to reduce silos. Fifty-eight percent of respondents identified that institutional factors such as the organizational structure (n = 8) and red tape/bureaucracy (n = 3) contribute to siloing. Additional behaviors and actions that perpetuate silos were identified, and efforts to reduce silos were categorized to propose a model: Framework to Foster Collaboration for improving organizational collaborative efforts. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Key themes included inclusion, shared goals and vision, bi-directional communication, and relationship building and developing trust as critical elements for improving collaboration and creating synergy across teams in efforts to reduce silos in the workplace.

The fall of 2021 was the first school semester to begin with widespread in-person learning since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Understanding dietary and physical activity behaviors of adolescents during this time can provide insight into potential health equity gaps and programmatic needs in schools and communities. This report uses data from the 2021 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted among a nationally representative sample of U.S. public and private school students in grades 9-12 to update estimates of dietary and physical activity behaviors among U.S. high school students overall and by sex and race and ethnicity. In addition, 2-year comparisons (2019 versus 2021) of these behaviors were examined. In 2021, daily consumption of fruits, vegetables, and breakfast during the past 7 days remained low and decreased overall with specific disparities by sex and race and ethnicity from 2019 to 2021. The overall prevalence of students attending physical education classes daily, exercising to strengthen muscles on ≥3 days/week (i.e., met the guideline for muscle-strengthening activity), and playing on at least one sports team decreased from 2019 to 2021; whereas being physically active for ≥60 minutes/day on all 7 days (i.e., met the guideline for aerobic activity) and meeting both aerobic and muscle-strengthening guidelines remained low but did not change. These findings underscore the need for strategies to increase healthy dietary and physical activity behaviors both in the recovery phase of COVID-19 and longer term.

The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) framework advances an intentional and integrated vision of policies, practices, and programs that support students' health and academic success across 10 components within school settings. WSCC promotes family and community engagement with schools and recognizes schools as key locations for equitable access to services for addressing health disparities and increasing healthy options for all students.1-3 This approach has some formal recognition in the United States; 18 states and the District of Columbia have statutes or regulations addressing WSCC or a coordinated school health approach, and another 17 include these concepts in noncodified policy language, such as nonbinding guidance, agreements, or procedures from state agencies.4 | | This special issue presents a decade of school-based physical activity (PA) and nutrition intervention research conducted across multiple WSCC components. Individually and collectively, these articles identified evidence-based strategies that can be implemented within schools and highlighted opportunities for future research focused on school-based PA and nutrition interventions. Here, we use the terms interventions and strategies interchangeably to describe changes to school policies, practices, or infrastructure.

BACKGROUND: There are many ways to increase physical activity (PA) during the school day as part of a Comprehensive School Physical Activity Plan. This article reviews policies and practices that can be used during the school day to increase PA for students. METHODS: We searched systematic reviews for articles that met criteria (2010-2018, phase 1), followed by a search for individual articles addressing topics for which we did not identify a sufficiently relevant or recent review or to update an earlier review that concluded insufficient evidence (2010-2020, phase 2). We included 45 articles (45 studies, 54 interventions). RESULTS: We grouped studies by intervention type: school-wide PA approaches to reach all students within the school setting (17), physical education (PE) interventions (13), and interventions related to recess (15). Few studies involved secondary schools or rural settings. Among 45 studies reporting PA behavior or fitness outcomes, 37 reported at least 1 improvement. CONCLUSIONS: PA policies, PE, and recess can help improve school health by increasing the PA levels of students.

The disruption of school operations and routines caused by the COVID-19 pandemic affected students’ physical and emotional well-being. Providing physical activity opportunities in schools can encourage students to positively engage with each other. Using a nationally representative sample of U.S. high school students from the Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (January to June 2021), we examined the association between physical activity behaviors and feeling close to people at school using sex-stratified and race/ethnicity-stratified multiple linear regressions models. Participating in team sports, being more physically active, and attending physical education (PE) during an average week were all associated with higher levels of feeling close to people at school, with variation by sex and race/ethnicity. These associations were also significant when the physical activity behavior variables were categorized to reflect national recommendations. Daily physical activity (i.e., ≥60 minutes all 7 days), daily PE (i.e., attended all 5 days), and the number of Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program (CSPAP) components implemented were associated with higher levels of feeling close to people at school. These findings suggest that opportunities for physical activity before, during, and after school are associated with increased levels of feeling close to people at school during crises like COVID-19. © Copyright 2023 The Author(s).

The staff involvement (SI) and family and community engagement (FCE) components of the CSPAP framework constitute the support system for program implementation and sustainability. These components embody the essence of the framework because they focus on the coordination and synergy needed for a successful program, and such attributes are the hallmark of multicomponent approaches to school-based health promotion. But what does it take to galvanize school staff, families, and communities in a collective effort to bolster quality physical education and promote and increase the physical activity (PA) of children and adolescents? In this article, the authors summarize research on SI and FCE, particularly over the past decade. While research on these CSPAP components is still in its emergent stages, we identify key findings to date and suggest strategies for translating research to practice. It is our hope that this article will provide school PA leaders (PALs) and physical education teacher educators with actionable ideas to more fully leverage the CSPAP support system. © 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Increasing active travel to school (ATS) could reduce the deficit in youth physical activity participation; however, surveillance of ATS is limited. Given that ATS contributes to our understanding of children's physical activity patterns nationwide, is influenced by local contexts and state laws, and occurs within communities, surveillance could be informative at the national, state, and local levels. Following a National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research workshop, this commentary offers insights into strengthening surveillance and data collection of ATS behavior as well as ATS environmental, policy, and program supports.

The importance of physical activity and community-level promotion strategies are well established, but little is known about adult perception of the importance of physical activity. In a nationwide sample of US adults, we examined self-reported importance of regular physical activity and the importance of living in walkable neighborhoods. About 55% of adults strongly agreed that regular physical activity is important, 40% strongly agreed that living in a walkable neighborhood is important, and 31% strongly agreed that both are important. Separately for each measure, estimates were lower among adults with lower education levels and who did not meet the aerobic physical activity guideline. Opportunities exist to improve the perception of the importance of physical activity and the importance of walkable neighborhoods.

Increasing physical activity in communities is a key public health strategy for chronic disease prevention and health promotion. Very few Americans get the minimum amount of physical activity necessary for substantial health benefits.1 Activity-friendly communities make physical activity easier or more accessible by providing opportunities for active transportation, leisure-time physical activity, or both.2 They are easy to navigate by foot, bicycle, or wheelchair, and they connect useful destinations, including public transit.3