Journal of healthy eating and active living最新文献

Disparities in youth obesity continue despite an increasing number of programs designed to address this challenge. Policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes hold promise. Youth Engagement & Action for Health! (YEAH!) is a youth advocacy curriculum for PSE change that promotes healthy behaviors. From 2017-2019, 18 youth-serving organizations hosted YEAH! clubs serving 237 middle school youth from low-income communities. Study data include YEAH! adult leader surveys and interviews. Data were coded on themes of youth advocacy action, youth retention, and opportunities and threats to program success. After coding, the data were organized into four categories for validation by representative adult leaders. This study found that positive outcomes were facilitated by adult leaders who had previous engagement with the youth, who showed enthusiasm for youth advocacy, and who had access to resources to motivate group cohesion, participation, and commitment. Best practices highlighted from this study offer tested strategies for adult leaders of youth advocacy groups.

Black female adolescents and women have disproportionately higher rates of obesity than their racial/ethnic counterparts. There is an urgent need to address obesity prevention in Black adolescent females through interventions that enhance lifestyle physical activity and improve dietary behaviors. Middle adolescence presents an important opportunity to strengthen the daughter-mother bond and improve healthy behaviors such as physical activity and dietary intake. Because of the intersection of adolescent development, culture and structural racism, it is essential to include mothers; however, this approach is understudied in the literature. This pre-pilot proof of concept study, Black Girls Move, was conducted using a 12-week pre-post within-subjects design to assess feasibility of conducting and delivering the BGM intervention, program satisfaction, and ability to obtain outcome measures in Black ninth and tenth grade daughters and their mothers. Twenty-two dyads were recruited and 14 dyads completed baseline assessments; however, only eight daughters and their mothers attended the first session and remained for the entire study. All dyads had valid objective and self-reported physical activity data. However, two of eight daughters and one mother provided self-reported dietary data that were considered invalid. All individual sessions were rated highly. Excellent attendance, retention, and satisfaction among participants suggest that we succeeded in developing an accepted, culturally relevant intervention. This lifestyle intervention would be strengthened by modifications to recruitment and retention, as well as incorporation of a computerized dietary assessment tool, a tailored dietary app for self-monitoring, and increased photo-based and group homework activities.

In January 2020, Hawai'i became the second state with a healthy default beverage (HDB) law, requiring restaurants to offer HDBs with their children's meals. This observational study presents baseline characteristics of restaurants with a children's menu and meal. The study describes pre-law beverage options to inform future HDB policy language, implementation, and evaluation. Between November and December 2019, data were collected from a statewide sample of unique restaurants (N = 383) with health inspection permits. Restaurants were assessed separately for a children's menu and meal using website reviews, telephone calls, and in-person visits. Meals were evaluated for pre-law beverage type and compliance. Logistic regression was used to estimate the likelihood of having a children's menu and meal. Most of the restaurants were full-service (70.2%) and non-chains (67.9%). While 49.3% of restaurants had a children's menu, only 16.7% had a children's meal. Significant predictors of having a children's menu were being full-service, national/international or local chains, neighbor island (non-Honolulu) locations, and hotel locations. Only being a national/international chain significantly predicted having a children's meal. Although 35.9% of children's meals offered a non-sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) option, only 3.1% offered law-compliant beverages. Inclusion of an SSB default option (60.9%) and not specifying the type of default beverage were the predominant factors for pre-law non-compliance. Results support the need for HDB regulations, especially for national/international chains, which were most likely to have children's meals, and provide data to inform policies in other jurisdictions.

Lower levels of physical activity among children in the United States can be attributed in part to the lack of access to safe, low-cost recreational facilities. Shared use, or a partnership allowing the community to use school recreational facilities outside of normal hours, has received increased attention. The objective of this study was to determine the extent of knowledge among school district decision makers about a law passed clarifying liability for school shared use in Minnesota and to understand perceptions held by school decision makers regarding shared use of recreational facilities. A survey of Minnesota school superintendents and other decision makers (N = 182) was conducted to understand the issues relevant to sharing school recreational facilities with the public. The majority (90%) of respondents indicated concern about liability for injury on school property outside of normal hours, and that insurance and contracts provided the most protection from liability. Most respondents indicated they were not familiar with the Minnesota shared use legislation and its provisions (61.4%, n = 108). Findings suggest the importance of education and training to further school superintendents' knowledge of Minnesota shared use legislation, legal and policy issues relevant to shared use, and issues related to the implementation of shared use within their districts.

Public parks offer free and easy access to spaces for outdoor recreation, which is essential for children's outdoor play and physical activity in low-income communities. Because parks and playgrounds contribute to children's physical, social, and emotional development, it is critical to understand what makes them attractive and welcoming for families with young children. Parents can be a key determinant to children visiting parks, with their preferences influencing whether or not families visit parks in their neighborhoods. Our study examined attributes associated with parental preferences for parks in low-income diverse communities in New York City, New York, and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, USA. Parents' responses were grouped into 10 categories using content analysis, with four key preference themes identified: physical attributes, experiences, social environment, and amenities. Physical attributes (i.e., playgrounds, sports fields, green spaces) were most desired among all groups. A significant difference across race/ethnic groups was found in New York but not in Raleigh-Durham. In New York, Latino parents had a strong preference for experience attributes (i.e. safety, safe facilities, cleanliness), which differed from other groups. Examining only Latino parents across both cities, we found no significant difference in preferences between the two cities. Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach to encourage park use, our finding suggests facilities and park safety are modifiable ways local government agencies could design and maintain parks that would be preferred by parents for their children. Future research should examine how neighborhood context may influence parent preferences related to parks.