For the purposes of this reporting system, reach is defined as the unduplicated number of people who come in direct contact with one or more PSE changes at a site over the course of a year.
Please report on reach at the site level only. Thus, if you are implementing multiple PSE strategies in a site, the reported reach should not exceed the total priority population at that site. If any intervention strategy at that site reaches your entire site priority population — those people whose dietary intake and/or PA levels you are trying to impact (e.g. students at a school, workers at a worksite, congregation members at a church, food recipients at a food pantry, shoppers at a store or farmers market) — report reach as that total priority population figure. Do not include the people delivering the intervention, such as store managers, educators, or program staff, unless you are also targeting their individual dietary intake or physical activity. If you are implementing multiple strategies that reach different segments of the population at a site, add the unduplicated reach of the strategies and report the total.
Definitions and examples
Direct contact refers to the people who are likely to be touched directly by your intervention. For example, the reach of a school garden is not necessarily the whole student body, but rather only those who worked on, learned at, or ate from the garden. Similarly, the reach of a corner store is not the number of people in a geographical region around the store, but rather the number of people who shop there.
Unduplicated means that if a person comes in direct contact with more than 1 PSE change at the same site, that person is counted only once. For example, if a school starts a school garden, improves school meals, and increases PE time, the reach of these 3 PSEs is not added together. In this case, some of the strategies reach the entire student population, so reach equals total enrollment or average daily attendance for a given reporting year. If a K-5 school integrates gardening into the 4th grade nutrition class, improves opportunities to be physically active during recess for grades 3-5, and starts a K-2 walking school bus program, the total reached would be the number of students in grades 3-5 plus the number of K-2 students who participate in the walking school bus program during a given reporting year. Likewise, if the same person comes in contact with the same PSE several times during the year, they are only counted once. For example, a person who shops at a corner store once per week throughout the year only counts as 1.
Definitions and examples of reach by type of PSE strategy
Early childhood care and education: Most of the changes at these sites are changes to which all children are exposed, but for example if some physical activities or foods are only offered to a subgroup, you would use the number who had the option to participate in the physical activity or eat the foods during the reporting year.
Community or school gardens: Unduplicated number of persons who worked in, learned at, or ate from the garden during the year.
School meals: Total school enrollment or average daily attendance* for the reporting year**.
Competitive foods: Total school enrollment or average daily attendance* for the reporting year**.
Classroom and celebration foods: Unduplicated number of students who attended events or classes affected by the PSE change. If all classes and events were affected by the PSE, then use Average Daily Attendance or enrollment* at that school for the reporting year.
Vending machines: Unduplicated number of people who bought foods or beverages during the reporting year from the machines that were added or changed. This is a particularly challenging measure and it is not expected that most sites will be able to provide this data.
Meetings: Unduplicated number of people who attended meetings during the reporting year that were impacted by the PSE change.
Joint use: Unduplicated number of people who used the school joint use facilities or space outside of school hours during the reporting year. This is a particularly challenging measure and it is not expected that most sites will be able to provide this data.
Structured physical activity: Unduplicated number of people that participated during the reporting year in the structured physical activity classes or sessions that were added or changed.
Physical education: Number of students who participated during the reporting year in the classes that were added or changed.
Event/celebration foods and/or physical activity: Unduplicated number of people attending the event(s) during the reporting year.
Water access, quality or appeal: Unduplicated number of people who had access during the reporting year to the water that was added or changed.
Changes to stores/food pantries: Unduplicated number of people who shopped or received food at that store/pantry during the year. If the change is temporary or sporadic, the reach would only include customers who shopped during the time the change or activity was in place.
Safe routes to school: Unduplicated number of students that walked/rolled to school or participated in the program during the reporting year.
Exercise/physical activity facilities:
In the school, apartment, workplace or faith-based setting: Unduplicated number of students/residents/workers/congregants that had access to the facilities and had the option to use them during the reporting year. If others in the community used these facilities and were part of your priority community, those could also be included in the reach number.
In other community settings: unduplicated number of people who visited the site and had the option to use the aspect of the park that was changed or added during the reporting year.
Park facilities/safety: Unduplicated number of people (per year) who visited the park or center and had the option to use the aspect of the park that was added or changed.
Physical activity classes at a park or community center: Unduplicated number of people who attended the classes or activities during the reporting year.
Marketing and promotion: Unduplicated number of people exposed to the marketing during the reporting year.
Recess: Unduplicated number of students who had recess during the reporting year at the times that were added or changed.
Lactation supports: Unduplicated number of breastfeeding women during the reporting year that had the option to use the supports.
Written policies: Written policies that have not yet been implemented have a reach of 0. Once implemented, the reach is the number who come in direct contact with the practice, program, or environmental change that resulted from the policy.
Active transportation/complete streets: Number of people who used the affected streets or transportation options on a regular basis during the reporting year.
Systems changes: Number of people who came in contact with changes or activities during the reporting year that happened as a result of the system-level intervention, i.e. adding a food hub that serves 2 schools and 4 stores would impact the students at those schools and shoppers at those stores.
Method used
When asked the method used to arrive at the reach number reported, select one of the three options as described below:
Measured: Choose this option if you obtained actual figures from a reliable source, such as Average Daily Attendance from school administration or a government website; or you or some other reliable source conducted a survey or observation, etc.
Estimate: Choose this option if you had some reasonable basis or data on which to base an estimate, e.g. 1) you have number of transactions per day at a store and you estimated the unduplicated number of customers per year based on the store owner’s estimates regarding repeat customers; 2) the school told you that about half of the PE teachers implemented the new PE policies and about 80% of the students attend PE, so the reach was estimated at 0.8 x 0.5 x [size of the student body].
Unknown: You have no data and no basis for making an estimate. Some of these reach figures are not simple to obtain. For example the “unduplicated number of people who used the school joint use facilities” or “unduplicated number of people who bought foods or beverages from vending machines” are particularly challenging to measure accurately. It is not expected that most sites would be able to report these figures. It is preferable to report “unknown” than to provide an inaccurate estimate.