142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

304949
Connecting Students, Parents, and the School Environment: Multi-level Interventions to Promote Health Behaviors Among School-Aged Youth

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 1:10 PM - 1:30 PM

Lisa Lachenmayr, Director, MD Food Supplement Nutrition Education Program , Extension - FSNE Program, University of Maryland, Columbia, MD
Nicole Finkbeiner, PhD , Extension - FSNE Program, University of Maryland, Columbia, MD
Erin Braunscheidel, MHS, RD, LDN , Extension - FSNE Program, University of Maryland, Columbia, MD
Stephanie Grutzmacher, PhD , Department of Family Studies, School of Public Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
INTRODUCTION: The Social-Ecological Model (SEM) specifies that individual, interpersonal, and organizational factors interact to influence health behavior. Multiple-level intervention programs have been found to promote sustained improvements in nutrition behavior among low-income audiences. Maryland’s SNAP-Ed program implements multi-level parent and school-based interventions to promote change in youth health behavior.

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 programs
Communication 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

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

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.