Coordinating community social ecological system dynamics through data-driven population health improvement science for  physical activity, nutrition, and other cancer prevention behaviors in children.

Healthy Youth Places School Model for Data-Driven Community Population Health Improvement

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Our research team has developed an approach to community population health improvement based on creating an architecture for multi-level system coordination through facilitating local data-driven decision making in the design and implementation of policies, programs, and practices.  

​This approach was first presented as the Healthy Youth Places Framework to create a middle school prevention system with support from the National Institutes of Health RO1 HD37367.

Recent work is presenting the Wellness Landscape Model (Wellscapes) to create a whole-of-community prevention system with support from the National Cancer Institute of the NIH R01CA215420. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03380143
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The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Adaptations of the Healthy Places Model Architecture

Original Middle School Model
  • Dzewaltowski DA, Estabrooks PA, Welk G, et al. Healthy Youth Places: A Randomized Controlled Trial to Determine the Effectiveness of Facilitating Adult and Youth Leaders to Promote Physical Activity and Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Middle Schools. Health Education & Behavior. 2009;36(3):583-600. doi:10.1177/1090198108314619 (Shown in Figure 2 Above). 
  • Dzewaltowski, D.A., Estabrooks, P.A., & Johnston , J.A.  (2002) Healthy Youth Places promoting nutrition and physical activity, Health Education Research, 17, 541–551, https://doi.org/10.1093/her/17.5.541
  • Dzewaltowski, D. A., Estabrooks, P. A., Gyurcsik, N. C., & Johnston, J. A. (2002). Promotion of physical activity through community development. In J. L. Van Raalte & B. W. Brewer (Eds.), Exploring sport and exercise psychology (p. 209–223). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10465-010

Application of the Model
  • Dzewaltowski, D.A., Rosenkranz, R.R., Geller, K.S. et al. HOP'N after-school project: an obesity prevention randomized controlled trial. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 7, 90 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-7-90
  • Coleman, K.J., Shordon, M., Caparosa, S.L. et al. The healthy options for nutrition environments in schools (Healthy ONES) group randomized trial: using implementation models to change nutrition policy and environments in low income schools. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 9, 80 (2012).https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-9-80
  • Chen, S., Dzewaltowski, D.A., Rosenkranz, R.R. et al. Feasibility study of the SWITCH implementation process for enhancing school wellness. BMC Public Health 18, 1119 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-6024-2
  • Dev, D. A., Padasas, I., Hillburn, C., Carraway-Stage, V., & Dzewaltowski, D. A. (2020). Using the RE-AIM Framework in Formative Evaluation of the EAT Family Style Multilevel Intervention.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-87491/v1​

Modeling the Social Interpersonal Practice Dynamics of Children's Organized Group Activities

Our research team has developed an approach to modeling children's organized group activities impact on high frequency preventive health behaviors, such as physical activity,  through modeling the system interpersonal coordination pattern dynamics defined by space and time boundaries.

​Episode boundary (start and stop point defined by activity purpose)
  • Schlechter, C. R., Guagliano, J. M., Rosenkranz, R. R., Milliken, G. A., & Dzewaltowski, D. A. (2018). Physical activity patterns across time-segmented youth sport flag football practice. BMC public health, 18(1), 226. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5108-3 (Shown in Figure above).
Session boundary (start and stop point defined by session purpose)
  • Schlechter, C. R., Rosenkranz, R. R., Guagliano, J. M., & Dzewaltowski, D. A. (2018). Impact of troop leader training on the implementation of physical activity opportunities in Girl Scout troop meetings. Translational behavioral medicine, 8(6), 824-830.                               https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/iby091
  • Guagliano, J. M., Kolt, G. S., Rosenkranz, R. R., & Dzewaltowski, D. A. (2019). Does self-determined motivation interact with environmental contexts to influence moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during a girls’ youth sport camp?. Journal of sports sciences, 37(23), 2720-2725 https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2019.1662537
  • Schlechter, C. R., Rosenkranz, R. R., Fees, B. S., & Dzewaltowski, D. A. (2017). Preschool daily patterns of physical activity driven by location and social context. Journal of school health, 87(3), 194-199. https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12486
  • Guagliano, J. M., Updyke, N. J., Rodicheva, N. V., Rosenkranz, S. K., Dzewaltowski, D. A., Schlechter, C. R., & Rosenkranz, R. R. (2017). Influence of session context on physical activity levels among Russian girls during a summer camp. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 88(3), 352-357. https://doi.org/10.1080/02701367.2017.1331291
Professor and Endowed Community Chair         In Activity, Nutrition, & Obesity Prevention
      College of Public Health 
     University of Nebraska Medical Center 

Professor Emeritus
      Kansas State University


Buffett Early Childhood Institute
​     University of Nebraska System
​​"We started rigorous community research in 1999 as part of a National Institutes of Health school randomized trial of how to build healthy youth places.  We formed www.healthyplaces.org as a place-based approach to improve the health (physical activity and nutrition) and development of youth.  Now we are leading innovation on whole-of-community systems research with new strategy, fostering locally lead efforts to build equitable community opportunities or wellness landscapes (www.wellscapes.org) for youth. This work is funded by the NIH National Cancer Institute."
Research Coordinator
College of Public Health
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Wellscapes Coordinator
College of Public Health
University of Nebraska Medical Center​
"Our laboratory is investigating community, organization and group processes that drive structural opportunities for improved youth health behavior.  We study community-driven practices through rigorous research methods using video observation and objective measurement of health behavior, such as using accelerometers to measure physical activity.  By pairing measures of community, organization, and group structures and processes with measures of health behavior, we can establish how community social ecological systems impact the lives of youth, how structures in opportunities impact youth,  and what communities can do to provide more opportunities for all children."
"Wellscapes is a method for community-driven efforts to build a community landscape of healthy places. A community with a patchwork of different places providing healthy opportunities where children and families go, such as school, after school programs, clubs, faith groups, and youth sport, can provide a local environment to support healthy development and behavior. By using data to drive decision making, embedding community systems change, and providing professional development, communities can combine efforts to create a mosaic of healthy places to live, work, learn, and play.  Click on wellscapes.org to signup for the community population health improvement method for children"
Dzewaltowski Interview on Community Wellness
    Wellness Landscape Communities
Current Projects
2018-2023 2019-2022 2021-2026
2020-2021 2019-2023 2017-2020 ​2018-Ongoing2021 – 2022 
  • Coordinating Whole-of-Community Systems for Early Life Cancer Prevention in the Great Plains: All Sports for All Kids Project
    • ​Dzewaltowski, D.A (PI)
    • Dev, Dipti Co-(PI),
    • Rosen, Marisa (C0-PI)
​2021 – 2022
  • SensiTray: Improving Feasibility and Validity in Children’s Dietary Assessment.
    • NIH P20gM10431 Seed grant, Zempleni, (PI)
    • ​​Dev, D. A., (PI)
    • Pitla, S (Co-PI)
    • ​Dzewaltowski, D.A (Co-PI)
    • Guru, H
2015-Ongoing

SELECTED AWARDS


​Distinguished Scientist Award
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The Distinguished Scientist Award -- which is sponsored by the chancellor and recognizes researchers who have been among the most productive scientists at the University of Nebraska Medical Center during the past five years -- was awarded to Dr. David Dzewaltowski.

​Outstanding MPH Capstone Award
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Research Assistant Ann Essay receives the UNMC College of Public Health Outstanding Capstone Award from Dean Ali Khan for her research with Children's Hospital Center for the Child & Community on geographic variability in childhood obesity in Omaha.