237611 Child care health consultants improve teacher and parent nutrition and physical activity knowledge

Tuesday, November 1, 2011: 11:30 AM

Jonathan B. Kotch, MD, MPH , Dept. of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Abbey Alkon, PhD, PNP , School of Nursing Dept of Family Health Care, UCSF California Childcare Health Program, San Francisco, CA
Angela A. Crowley, PhD, APRN, PNP , School of Nursing, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Sara Neelon, PhD , Department of Community and Family Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
Pan Yi, PhD , FPG Child Development Institute, UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Eric Savage, MA , FPG Child Development Institute, UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Sherika Hill, MHA, PhD student , Department of Maternal and Child Health, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Viet Nguyen, MD, MPH , Department of Maternal and Child Health, UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
663 children 2-5 years old and their families in 18 child care centers in three states were enrolled in a study, randomized at the center level, of NAPSACC, the Nutrition and Physical activity Self-Assessment in Child Care program. Pairs of centers were matched and randomly assigned to control or intervention groups by coin toss. Child care health consultants in each state, specially trained in nutrition and physical activity consultation, delivered the NAPSACC intervention over a six month period, and each intervention center received a financial incentive for play equipment to promote physical activity. The intervention included five workshops for child care teachers and one workshop for families plus on-site consultation, education and technical assistance activities. Teachers and parents were administered short answer tests before and after the workshops. Three-level hierarchical linear modeling, controlling for state, was applied to assess changes in nutrition and physical activity knowledge from pre-tests to post-tests. On four of five post-tests, teacher knowledge scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores (p<0.01 for workshops on Obesity, Healthy Eating, Personal Health, and Families). The parent group showed statistically significant improvement in knowledge after the Growing Healthy Kids workshop (p<0.01). There is strong evidence that within the treatment group, the knowledge of providers and parents on most nutrition and physical activity topics improved significantly after they experienced the intervention. Implications for child care center policies and practices and children's diets and physical activity will be discussed.

Learning Areas:
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Public health or related education
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Describe NAPSACC, a nutrition and physical activity intervention in child care. Discuss the role of child care health consultants in delivering the NAPSACC intervention. Evaluate the impact of NAPSACC training on nutrition and physical activity knowledge among child care teachers and families.

Keywords: Child Care, Nutrition

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been a public health teacher and researcher for 33 years.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.