304949
Connecting Students, Parents, and the School Environment: Multi-level Interventions to Promote Health Behaviors Among School-Aged Youth
APPROACH: Text2BHealthy, a Maryland SNAP-Ed program, provides nutrition-focused text message reinforcements to parents of youth who receive SNAP-Ed programming at school. Youth participants receive nutrition education emphasizing healthy eating behaviors both in the classroom and during after-school programming. Pre-then-post survey data from parents (n = 93) and students (n =244) in intervention and control schools were collected to evaluate the impact of parental programs on youth behavior outcomes.
RESULTS: Participating parents (n = 50) reported higher fruit and vegetable consumption for themselves and for their children as compared to those in the control group (n = 43). Youth in both control (n = 90) and intervention schools (n = 154) reported increases in fruit and vegetable consumption and preference for healthy foods. Intervention youth reported significantly greater changes in the number of vegetables eaten; preference for fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; and the number of new fruits and vegetables they tasted.
DISCUSSION: The use of SEM in nutrition education delivery fosters change beyond the individual level. Although school-based nutrition education programs alone contribute to positive change in healthy eating behaviors among youth participants, the engagement of a multiple-level approach including parents in intervention programs promotes more significant change in health behavior.
Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programsCommunication and informatics
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Program planning
Public health or related education
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health
Learning Objectives:
Describe SNAP-Ed school based program strategies including nutrition education interventions that target students, parents, teachers and others within the school community.
Discuss the social ecological model (SEM) and the benefit and impact of reaching multiple layers within a school community.
Demonstrate the impact of a technology based parental education component on the outcomes of a school-based nutrition education program.
Keyword(s): Nutrition, Community-Based Health
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Erin Braunscheidel Duru is the Assistant Director for Maryland's SNAP-Ed Program. Erin works on coordinating state-wide nutrition education programs, most recently utilizing innovative technology and social media strategies such as mobile technology to reach participants.
Stephanie Grutzmacher is a faculty member in the University of Maryland School of Public Health. She also works as a research collaborator with the Maryland Food Supplement Nutrition Education program. Her current work focuses on nutrition education with low-income populations.
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.