Virgin Islands School-Based Surveillance Program - Project Abstract: USVIDOH Youth Risk Behavior Survey and School Health Profiles The United States Virgin Islands Department of Health (VIDOH) will collaborate with the Virgin Islands Department of Education (VIDE) and key stakeholders to implement the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) in the territory’s four public high schools, to include the alternative high school campuses and the Career and Technical Education Complex, in the years 2025, 2027 and 2029, as well as the School Health Profiles (SHP) in 2026 and 2028. VIDOH is responsible for providing public health services to the people of the Virgin Islands. As a core public health function of surveillance, the VIDOH currently implements the Behavioral Risk Factor Survey (BRFSS), the premier population-level surveillance system conducted annually to monitor the health of the adult population. Currently, the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) does not gather population level data on the health of the adolescent population or the policies and environments in the territory’s public high school. Recognizing the need for data on the health status of this population, the VIDOH previously contracted the Caribbean Exploratory Research Center (CERC) at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) to conduct a YRBS (https://doh.vi.gov/pantheon/USVI%20YRBS%202017%20E-Report_FN%20(1).pdf) in the spring of 2018, utilizing the 2017 YRBS Methodology for conducting your own YRBS. The department used modified 2017 Middle School and 2017 High School surveys to collect data on youth in grades seven through twelve. Findings from that survey have been presented to key staff at the VIDE and at national and international conferences, bringing attention to the health needs of adolescents and informing decisions to increase access to services in the school setting. The VIDOH thus proposes to utilize the 2025, 2027, 2029 High School YRBS questionnaires, following established CDC Methodology, and with required permissions from the VI Department of Education and appropriate parental consent/student assent, in alignment with the national surveillance system. Additionally, the VIDOH will include the sixteen additional questions to assess Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs), the first time this will be assessed on the adolescent population, filling another critical gap in the data on this population. Similarly, the VIDOH will utilize the 2026 and 2028 School Health Profile surveys, following the established survey methodology. Thus, if awarded, this grant will allow the territory to fill critical gaps in the data on a very important sector of the population, youth in grades nine through twelve enrolled in the territory’s four public high schools. Understanding the importance of the school environment in the overall well-being of youth, and in keeping with the ecological model framework, the school health profiles will provide important, timely data on school policies and environments to promote youth learning and health and inform policies and initiatives to improve health and well-being of adolescents in the USVI.
