Healthy Change in Your Community Challenge with African American Youth Aged 7-13

Alabama ranks as the second most obese state in the nation and 46th unhealthiest in the U.S. Results from the 2009-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) estimates that 17 percent of children and adolescents ages 2-19 years were obese. Physical inactivity and unhealthy eating contribute to overweight and obesity in children leading to a number of chronic diseases, including some cancers, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. The importance of creating a greater awareness of how nutrition research translates into practice and healthy choices is the driving component behind the Healthy Change in Your Community Challenge.

The Healthy Change in Your Community Challenge is a 9-month interactive educational competition developed in partnership between the McWane Science Center and UAB's Center for Clinical and Translational Science to promote how research and practice solve health problems such as obesity and diabetes. Focused on promoting healthy food choices by the participants, researchers used a pre and post observation design. BMI measurements, height, weight, and waist circumference were also taken. Approximately 200 African American children between the ages of 7-13 representing nine distinct community groups in the Birmingham metro area have participated in the challenge since October 2010. The average age was 11 and BMI was 32. Data collection through food observations revealed a high degree of accuracy between what each individual student self-reported for food consumption and the trained observers. Further, rater training indicates that observers can be trained to accurately identify portion sizes with only a short frame of reference training intervention.