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PreliminaryData From an Evidence‐Based Nutrition Education and Cooking Family Meals Program for Moderately Low‐Income Families with Children Aged 4–10 Years Old
Author(s) -
Rogers Catherine Ann,
Pratt Keeley,
Kennel Julie,
Gunther Carolyn
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.674.10
Subject(s) - nutrition education , psychological intervention , meal , medicine , gerontology , test (biology) , psychology , environmental health , nursing , paleontology , pathology , biology
Background & Objective Family meals have become a growing area of research due to the potential positive impact on child diet and weight status. Despite this, relatively few efforts have been made to design and test evidence‐based interventions rooted in theory to equip families – particularly those with school aged children and in economic need – with the necessary resources to overcome barriers to establishing healthy mealtime routines. The objective of this study was to design, implement, and assess the feasibility and limited effectiveness of a 10‐week, evidence‐based nutrition education and cooking family meals intervention (Simple Suppers) aligned with the Social Cognitive Theory and aimed at instilling healthy family meal time routines for improved child diet quality and weight status. Methods The SS program includes 10 weekly lessons delivered over the dinner hour and targets moderately low‐income families with children aged 4–10 yrs. The interactive program aims to instill positive eating behaviors through skill building, role modeling, facilitation, and goal‐setting. Lesson components include: parent education on strategies to overcome barriers to family meals; child education that engages children in hands on food preparation; and group family meal. SS, a multiple cohort (3) study, was implemented as a pre‐ and post‐test quasi‐experimental design with waitlist control at a city‐wide faith‐based community center in Columbus, OH. The primary study outcomes included child BMI z‐score and biometrics (systolic and diastolic blood pressure), as well as family meal frequency and related variables (weekly frequency of meals offered at home (dinner and breakfast) and fast food meal purchases), which were assessed at baseline, 10 week post‐test, and 20 week follow‐up through home visits with participants. Results Baseline assessments were completed on cohorts 1 and 2 (81 families). Among child participants, 70% were female and 66.3% were African American. Twenty eight percent of child participants were 4–5 yr, 48% 608 yr, and 24% 9–10 yr. Mean (SD) child BMI z‐score was 0.72 (0.12). Mean (SD) baseline systolic and diastolic blood pressure was 1.38 (1.3) and 1.17 (1.3), respectively. Among caretaker participants, 82.7% worked full‐ or part‐time and 56.4% graduated from college. Mean (SD) baseline weekly frequency of family dinners per week was 3.7 (1.08), breakfast was 2.6 (1.29), and fast food was 3.8 (0.84). Post‐test and follow‐up data will be collected in winter 2015 and spring 2016. Conclusion Results from this study will be utilized to determine the limited effectiveness of a community‐based family meals intervention to improve child diet quality and weight status, which may inform the design of future scale‐up studies. Support or Funding Information Cardinal Health Foundation The Ohio State University, Department of Human Sciences Seed Grant