Alicia Powers

Using “Point of Decision” Messages to Intervene on College Students' Eating Behaviors

Purpose. Examine the impact of “point of decision” messages on fruit selection in a single dining hall setting. Setting. Competitive undergraduate liberal arts college in the southeastern United States. Intervention. “Point of decision” messages were compiled into a 35-slide multimedia PowerPoint presentation. Messages were displayed on a computer screen at a “point of decision” between the cookie and fruit stations during lunch for a total of 9 days. Measures. Baseline cookie and fruit consumption was measured 9 days prebaseline and 9 days postbaseline. A random sample of students completed surveys 1 week after the intervention. Analysis. t-tests were used to examine differences between prelevels of fruit consumption and levels measured simultaneously during “point of decision” messages. Descriptive statistics were used to examine perceptions of survey items 1 week postintervention. Results. A significant mean difference in daily fruit consumption was found following the slide presentation (df-8, t = − 2.800; p = .023). Average daily fruit consumption at baseline was 408 (SD = 73.43). Postbaseline average daily fruit consumption significantly increased (533; SD = 102). No significant prebaseline and postbaseline cookie differences were found (p = .226). Approximately 71% of women and 68% of men noticed the “point of decision” messages. Nineteen percent of women and 10% of males reported modifying their food selection as a result of viewing the messages. Conclusion. The “point of decision” messaging significantly influenced fruit selection in a single dining hall setting. (Am J Health Promot 2011;25[5]:298-300.)

An Initiative to Facilitate Park Usage, Discovery, and Physical Activity Among Children and Adolescents in Greenville County, South Carolina, 2014

Introduction Parks are important settings for increasing population-level physical activity (PA). The objective of this study was to evaluate Park Hop, an incentivized scavenger-hunt–style intervention designed to influence park usage, discovery, park-based PA, and perceptions of parks among children and adolescents in Greenville County, South Carolina. Methods We used 2 data collection methods: matched preintervention and postintervention parent-completed surveys and in-park observations during 4 days near the midpoint of the intervention. We used paired-samples t tests and logistic regression to analyze changes in park visitation, perceptions, and PA. Results Children and adolescents visited an average of 12.1 (of 19) Park Hop parks, and discovered an average of 4.6 venues. In a subset of participants, from preintervention to postintervention, the mean number of park visits increased from 5.0 visits to 6.1 visits, the proportion of time engaged in PA during the most recent park visit increased from 77% to 87%, and parents reported more positive perceptions of the quality of park amenities. We observed more children and adolescents (n = 586) in the 2 intervention parks than in the 2 matched control parks (n = 305). However, the likelihood of children and adolescents engaging in moderate-to-vigorous PA was significantly greater in the control parks (74.3%) than in Park Hop parks (64.2%). Conclusion Park Hop facilitated community-collaboration between park agencies and positively influenced park usage, park discovery, time engaged in PA during park visits, and perceptions of parks. This low-cost, replicable, and scalable model can be implemented across communities to facilitate youth and family-focused PA through parks.