A Formative Evaluation of a Healthy Heroes: A Photo Comic Book Based Community Obesity Prevention Program

The purpose of this study was to perform a formative evaluation for the "Healthy-Heroes" program; an innovative community-based obesity prevention intervention that uses child created photo-comic books to teach concepts of nutrition.  Healthy Heroes was implemented with children (n=33), and extensive process and impact evaluations were used to understand how well the program was received.  In addition, parents of the children enrolled in the program (n=12) and workers (n=10) at the after-school program (the setting for "Healthy Heroes") completed one-on-one interviews to discuss what they perceived their roles were in obesity prevention, and possible barriers for implementing community based initiatives.  A pre and posttest evaluating fruit and vegetable consumption and social cognitive theory variables for the children found that while diet did not change, outcome expectations significantly increased (p=0.05).  Interviews with the children after the program revealed that they were excited about the concept of making photo-comic books, and would want to participate in an expanded version.  Interviews with parents revealed that they were interested in participating in an obesity prevention program, but did not want to formally attend meetings.  Other, interactive communication strategies were appealing to them however, such as emails, websites, and texting.  Additionally, parents noted that they would only participate if their child wanted to participate.  Interviews with the workers revealed that they supported implementing obesity-prevention interventions, but a potential barrier was the high turnover rate within the organization.  This intervention may be a viable community-based program for obesity prevention efforts in the future.