Community teens promoting healthy eating and active living to younger children: Preliminary results

Background: Pediatric obesity is a public health threat. Young children's diet and physical activity (PA) are influenced by older children. Healthy Foods, Healthy Moves: InForm Chicago (HFHM:IFC) delivers healthy lifestyle messaging to children and families in Chicago, a city with high childhood obesity rates. The core message 5-4-3-2-1GO! ™ promotes daily recommendations of ≥5 servings of fruits and vegetables, &ge4 servings of water, ≥3 servings of low-fat dairy, ≤2 hours of screen time, and ≥1 hour of PA. The message is being disseminated in Chicago communities by the Go Team - adolescents trained to teach children about the message through interactive games.

Objective: The Go Team evaluation was designed to understand the effect of the training on the team, and to assess their ability to deliver the message in the community.

Methods: This first phase of the Go Team evaluation collected data via individual questionnaires, a focus group, field observation tools and event inventories.

Results: Pre/post-training Go Team questionnaires show that members have gained awareness of the need for PA and healthy eating. Focus groups indicate that members are developing confidence and skills in communication, team work and teaching. Field observations document that members are enthusiastic and have developed skills connecting activities with the core message. Over 1200 children at more than 50 unique sites have worked with the GO Team.

Conclusions: 1. Training and experience gained by the GO Team positively affects the team members. 2. This teen to tot approach is a feasible approach to disseminating healthy lifestyle messages.