Overcoming Challenges Resulting From COVID-19: New York State's Creating Healthy Schools and Communities Initiative

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Behavior Research
• Chronic Disease Prevention

Background:

• Policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) strategies are crucial for population-level chronic disease prevention by improving access to healthy foods and physical activity.
• Implementing PSE strategies is complex, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need for enhanced practitioner capacity.
• The New York State Creating Healthy Schools and Communities (CHSC) initiative aims to implement these upstream interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a user- or human-centered design (HCD) capacity-building approach.
• To support practitioners implementing PSE strategies within the CHSC initiative.
• To demonstrate the adaptability of HCD during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Main Methods:

• A user- or human-centered design (HCD) framework was employed.
• Capacity building was tailored to support practitioners in the CHSC initiative.
• The approach focused on responsiveness to evolving practitioner needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Main Results:

• The HCD capacity-building approach provided responsive support to practitioners.
• This approach facilitated the implementation of PSE strategies amidst the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The tailored nature of the HCD approach addressed the specific needs of the CHSC initiative.

Conclusions:

• Human-centered design is an effective capacity-building strategy for public health practitioners implementing complex PSE interventions.
• The HCD approach demonstrated flexibility and responsiveness, proving valuable during the COVID-19 public health crisis.
• Further research is needed to explore the broader applicability of HCD in addressing diverse public health issues beyond obesity prevention in specific states.