Health Promotion in China’s Schools

In China’s Zhejiang Province, HHD has worked with the World Health Organization to provide training and assistance to schools in a pilot project that began several years ago to improve nutrition and establish “Health Promoting Schools.” According to a national survey, the prevalence of malnutrition among students was 22.5 percent and nearly 25 percent were overweight in Hangzhou, a city in Zhejiang Province. The nutrition interventions targeted approximately 7,500 students and their families, together with 800 teachers and school staff. Based on promising results that showed improvements in nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and behavior among students, parents, and school staff, this project was scaled up province-wide. It expanded to 51 more schools reaching approximately 93,000 students and 6,800 school staff with comprehensive school health programs on psychosocial development, nutrition, tobacco use and prevention, oral health, and injury prevention.