COD E R E D

intervene upon these chronic conditions measure health outcomes as opposed to academic outcomes orschool performance. This is not to imply there is no connection between school health programs andacademic outcomes. More research exploring this link is necessary before it can be determined. There issome evidence that increasing physical activity and providing appropriate nutrition services, such as aschool breakfast program, may improve school performance and reduce the incidence of certain chronicconditions. The recommendations made in this report will be based on this evidence.A summary of the studies reviewed appears in Table 4 below. As noted earlier, most of the studiesthat considered the impact of interventions focused on health as their endpoint and not on academicachievement. Part of this may have been a function of the interests of the funders; those with healthmissions were not accountable for improvements in academic performance. Studies of interventions thattargeted obesity, for example, seldom included any academic measures. The exceptions were few, butnotable. We have several excellent studies of physical inactivity that demonstrate academicimprovements. To the extent that obesity is highly correlated with physical inactivity, we could posit anindirect effect from programs designed to increase physical activity. The same is true of diabetes. To theextent that physical activity is a preventative against the onset of type 2 diabetes, we can infer an indirecteffect through diabetes reduction as well.As the table indicates, we have primarily three areas of scientifically documented healthinterventions that yield academic dividends: physical activity, asthma and under-nourishment. We willaddress the consequences of this in a later section.E-24