The Akron Legal News

Teens healthier, happier after completing new health program

ALLISON SLONAKER
Special to the Legal News
Published: December 1, 2015

High school students with elevated levels of depression were less depressed and lost weight after participating in a new health program focusing on emotional behavior, according to researchers at The Ohio State University.

A year after completing the COPE (Creating Opportunities for Personal Empowerment) Healthy Lifestyles TEEN (Thinking, Emotions, Exercise, Nutrition) program, students showed lower body mass index than those receiving the standard health curriculum.

Also, students in the COPE program who reported having elevated depression showed lower levels of depression a year after program’s completion, according to OSU researchers.

COPE curriculum teaches high school students that how they think is directly related to how they feel and behave.

It also demonstrates how they can gain positive beliefs from negative beliefs so they feel better emotionally and engage in healthy behaviors.

Based on cognitive behavioral therapy the program has an emphasis on skills-building.

“CBT is the gold standard treatment for depression and anxiety, but it has traditionally been used in one-on-one, hour-long therapy sessions,” said Bernadette Melnyk, dean of the OSU College of Nursing and lead author of the study.

“With COPE, any health professional or educator can teach cognitive behavior skills to adolescents. This is huge for schools or community center. We can really make positive impact on teens’ lives by teaching these skills to them.”

Melnyk began developing COPE more than 20 years ago while she was a pediatric and psychiatric nurse practitioner.

With the focus on evaluating the long-term efficacy of COPE, a total of 779 high school students between the ages of 14 and 16 from 11 high schools in the southwestern United States participated in the study.

Half of the participating students attended a control class, called Healthy Teens, which covered standard health topics such as road safety, dental care and immunizations.

The other half was placed in the COPE Healthy Lifestyles TEEN program.

The curriculum for the program was a blend of cognitive-behavioral skill sessions with nutrition lessons and 30 minutes of physical activity.

The follow-up research conducted 12 months after completion of the program showed significantly lower numbers of overweight and obese teens among those in the COPE program .

Of the teens in the COPE program only 4.8 percent who were in the healthy weight category moved into the overweight category with none moving into obese.

That’s compared to the teens in the Healthy Teens program, where 10 percent moved into the overweight and obese categories.

Of teens who are on public assistance, those in the COPE program had a significantly larger decline in body mass percentile compared to the Healthy Teens students.

One finding Melnyk believes is important is the change in the depression level of the students in the COPE program.

Students who participated in the COPE program and started with severely elevated depression symptoms had lower scores that fell into the normal levels one year after.

The students in the Healthy Teens program with high levels of depression tended to still have the high levels.

“Because the majority of adolescents with depression do not receive treatment, and even fewer receive CBT, it is vital that we provide them the tools and ability to engage in positive thinking and employ effective coping,” Melnyk said.

“The feedback from the teens during the open-ended evaluations included hundreds of comments specifically indicating that the COPE program helped them deal effectively with stress and anger as well as to feel better about themselves.”

After seeing the results Melnyk said he hopes to continue seeing schools across the country using COPE.

“A variety of professionals can learn the program, so it could be used in schools, community centers and youth organizations to help teens lead healthier, happier lives and perform better academically,” she said.

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