Applying a system dynamics lens to adoption, implementation and impact of school based primary prevention for health behaviour change
This project is funded by the Norwegian Cancer Society for 2022-2024.
We already know that a healthy diet is one of the most important preventable risk factors for cancer. We further know that a person’s risk profile is established in youth and differ by socio-economic status. Thus, the best time to implement cancer prevention strategies is at an early age and as such, primary prevention through schools in particular has been extensively researched. However, dissemination has been slow, and there is great lack of attention to adoption and implementation processes of evidence-based interventions, as well as ignorance of the complex systems that these processes are integrated in. In this project, we will focus on adoption and implementation in these complex systems, in addition to the potential impact on the habit formation of children. We will do this by applying a system dynamics approach to understanding the behaviour of the whole system. The Norwegian SFS, with an adoption rate of only 35% and provided for free in only 40 out of 356 municipalities is a fitting case study for this purpose.
The objective of the project is to generate new knowledge on adoption, implementation and impact of school-based primary prevention interventions through combining implementation science and system dynamics and using the Norwegian School Fruit Scheme (SFS) as a case.
The following research questions will be answered:
1. What are the processes determining whether schools will adopt or de-adopt the Norwegian SFS?
2. What are the similarities and differences of the implementation processes of free fruit provision in lower secondary schools with different socio-demographic profiles?
3. Which mechanisms drive the impact of the Norwegian SFS on the habit formation of school children, and how is this related to adoption and implementation?
- Nanna Lien, Biljana Mehskovska, Mahshid Zolfaghari, Knut-Inge Klepp
- FRESKO website
Collaborating partners:
- Professor Birgit Kopiansky, University of Bergen
- Associate professor Hanne C. Lie, University of Oslo