The cover story in the February 2008 issue of the Journal of the Kentucky Medical Association, “Health Promotion Schools of Excellence: Learning from the Past to Impact the Future,” is the result of collaboration between the researchers and faculty at the UofL School of Public Health & Information Sciences (SPHIS) and the School of Medicine. SPHIS contributors include: Ruth Carrico, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences; John Myers, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics; and Kelly Ketterman, MEd, Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences.

The article highlights the efforts of the Health Promotion Schools of Excellence (HPSE) to impact the health and physical fitness of school-aged children in Jefferson County. Data collected from the HPSE program was analyzed in this study and suggests that the program may favorably impact the rate of childhood obesity among participating students. The epidemic of obesity continues to grow among Kentucky children and these findings support the notion that the HPSE program should move toward a more standardized approach to prevent obesity, define more sophisticated metrics for success, and require consistent participation across all schools in a process that works in concert with the Coordinated School Health program supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.