Table 3.
School-level variables against percentage of schools by modal response of staff; secondary schools in Wales that were part of the 2005/2006 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study
| Variable type | School-level variable | % | School-level variable | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed school | School type* (n 64) | Shop close to school (n 64) | ||
| characteristics | State | 92·2 | Yes | 53·1 |
| Independent | 7·8 | No | 46·9 | |
| No. of pupils in school* (n 64) | % of pupils eligible for free school meals* (n 64) | |||
| Minimum | 152 | Minimum | 0·0 | |
| Maximum | 2045 | Maximum | 40·9 | |
| Mean | 922 | Mean | 15·8 | |
| Healthy-eating- | Healthiness of school food complements education (n 64) | No. of subjects healthy eating taught in (n 64) | ||
| promoting actions | No | 59·4 | 2 subjects | 4·7 |
| Indistinct mode | 4·7 | 3 subjects | 29·7 | |
| Yes | 35·9 | 4 subjects | 65·6 | |
| Whole-school campaigns on healthy eating (n 64) | Free samples of healthy food (n 64) | |||
| No | 62·5 | No | 93·8 | |
| Yes | 37·5 | Yes | 6·3 | |
| Links to community healthy eating initiatives (n 64) | Quality of information provided on health eating (n 64) | |||
| No | 87·5 | Not good | 60·9 | |
| Yes | 12·5 | Good | 39·1 | |
| Healthy eating policy (n 64) | ||||
| No policy known | 18·8 | |||
| Informal policy | 25·0 | |||
| Written policy | 56·3 | |||
| School has a SNAG (n 64) | Snack vending in school (n 64) | |||
| No | 85·9 | Yes | 53·1 | |
| Yes | 14·1 | No | 46·9 | |
| No. of Years allowed off premises for lunch (n 64) | School in WNHSS† (n 64) | |||
| 0 Years | 15·9 | Not in WNHSS | 34·3 | |
| 1 Year | 7·9 | Phases 0–1 | 21·4 | |
| 2 Years | 9·5 | Phases 2–3 | 38·6 | |
| 3 Years | 12·7 | Phases 4 or more | 5·7 | |
| 4 Years | 1·6 | |||
| 5 Years | 52·4 | |||
SNAG, School Nutrition Action Group; WNHSS, Welsh Network of Healthy School Schemes.
School type, number of pupils on the school roll for Years 7–11 and percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals are fixed school characteristics that are not a part of a whole-school approach to healthy eating. These characteristics may impact on health behaviours and were used in the sampling frame for the HBSC study. Data concerning these were obtained from the Welsh Assembly Government. Shop close to the school from which pupils can buy food is also a fixed school characteristic that schools cannot influence. This was controlled for in the analysis, data for this variable came from the school staff postal surveys.
All of the healthy-eating-promoting action variables used in calculating the number of actions variable came from the school staff postal survey except the variables on school activity in the WNHSS, which came from information supplied by the Welsh Assembly Government.