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Cardiac Kids Club Improves Nutrition Knowledge, Dietary Intake, and Fitness Among 4th & 5 th Graders
Author(s) -
Beck Megan,
Spence Marsha,
Clay Kristen,
PerryBurst Carolyn,
Colby Sarah,
Kavanagh Katie
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.276.1
Subject(s) - overweight , club , medicine , nutrition education , percentile , anthropometry , physical activity , physical fitness , physical therapy , obesity , cardiovascular fitness , childhood obesity , gerontology , mathematics , statistics , anatomy
Purpose The purpose of Cardiac Kids Club, an afterschool obesity prevention program for 4 th and 5 th graders, is to create healthful nutrition behavior changes and increase fitness levels among participants. Methods Children from 7 schools in East Tennessee, which were selected due to high rates of overweight and obesity among students, participated in the program (n=114). The program ran for 10‐weeks, with 20 sessions that included 45 minutes of nutrition education and 1 hour of physical activity. The nutrition curriculum included didactic and interactive components, along with taste tests; the physical activity component included non‐competitive games to keep children engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity throughout the physical activity time. Trained research assistants measured height and weight and assisted in collecting FITNESSGRAM measures pre‐ and post‐intervention. Children self‐reported dietary intake using a validated survey, the CATCH ‘EM 2: What Did You Eat Yesterday Questionnaire, and answered questions about nutrition‐related behaviors when selecting foods at home and school. Results From pre‐ to post‐implementation, children significantly decreased the average number of less‐healthy foods from 7.69 to 6.44 (p=0.01). Using Go, Slow and Whoa food categories to select foods increased in frequency and was significantly different pre‐ to post‐intervention (p=0.01). All FITNESS gram measurements significantly increased, including curlups, trunk lifts, sit and stretch right, sit and stretch left, push‐ups, and the mile‐run (p<0.01 for all measures). BMI percentile significantly decreased among all participants from 78.2 to 77.2 (p<0.01); further analysis revealed that pre‐ and post‐differences for participants classified as normal weight (BMI <85 th percentile) did not significantly decrease, while participants classified as overweight or obese (BMI ≥85 th percentile) did significantly decrease from 94.77 to 93.80 (p=0.02). Conclusion This research‐based obesity prevention program has the potential to positively impact the nutritional health and fitness levels of enrolled participants. Support or Funding Information Sponsorship from Tennova, grant funding from the East Tennessee Cardiovascular Research Foundation, 21st Century Grant Funding