142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Increasing Access to Healthier Beverages in Rural Counties in California

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Wednesday, November 19, 2014 : 9:10 AM - 9:30 AM

Robin Cox, MPH; CPH , Health Promotion & Community Wellness Bureau, Solano County Public Health, Fairfield, CA
  
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Introduction: Consumption of sugary beverages is associated with overweight and obesity, type 2 diabetes and dental decay. In 2010, 38% of Solano County children were overweight or obese. Fifty-nine percent of adolescents and 45% of children in Solano County drink one or more sodas per day.  CA4Health is a Community Transformation Grant from CDC of which one strategic direction is reducing  consumption of sugary beverages through healthy beverage standard implementation. The call to action is clear: encourage youth to limit sugary beverages and drink more water.

Approach:

Solano County contracted with three local youth-serving agencies to engage youth in community-organizing efforts. Youth leaders worked with other youth and adults to promote the adoption of healthier beverage standards in youth-serving organizations. A comprehensive media campaign,“Thirsty? Water Works Best,” was implemented to encourage drinking water instead of sugary beverages. 

Results:

Seven local youth-serving organizations adopted healthier beverage standards.  Additionally 30 youth helped develop a media campaign, including billboards, posters, a movie-theatre advertisement and radio spots.

Discussion: 

Engaging youth as community organizing partners working towards adoption of beverage standards is a promising strategy to improve the beverage environment. Because of their efforts, youth are making healthier beverage choices and encouraging peers and family members to do the same. This work is leading towards jurisdiction-wide beverage standards.

Learning objectives:  

  • Describe the community mobilizing model used to engage youth to improve the beverage environment.
  • List community settings that adopted healthier beverage standards.
  • Name two benefits of implementing a healthy beverage media campaign.

Learning Areas:

Advocacy for health and health education
Chronic disease management and prevention
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Program planning
Public health or related public policy
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Describe the community mobilizing model used to engage youth to improve the beverage environment. List community settings that adopted healthier beverage standards. Name two benefits of implementing a healthy beverage media campaign.

Keyword(s): Adolescents, Chronic Disease Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have 24 years of experience in Community Health Education, am the project director for multiple grants and have been responsible for providing technical assistance for public health public policy development for over twenty years. I direct Solano County's Community Transformation Grant, a project of the Public Health Institute with funding from CDC. From 2008-2011, I served as a governor's appointee to the Public Health Advisory Committee, advisory to the California Dept of Public Health.
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.

Back to: 5050.0: Beverages: Promoting healthy choices