Audrey Adler

Maintaining Food Sufficiency: Coping Strategies Identified by Limited-Resource Individuals versus Nutrition Educators

OBJECTIVE This studys purposes were to identify food acquisition and management coping strategies used by limited-resource individuals to maintain food sufficiency, compare strategies named by the target audience to those previously identified by nutrition educators, and examine these strategies to advance grounded theory. DESIGN Eleven focus groups, conducted with 62 limited-resource individuals, elucidated coping strategies that they or others they knew used to acquire or manage food to maintain food sufficiency. The results were compared with practices as previously identified by nutrition educators who regularly worked with this audience. SUBJECTS/SETTINGS Subjects aged 19 to 67 from throughout New Jersey were recruited by Food Stamp agencies, low-income outreach programs, soup kitchens, welfare offices, Head Start centers, shelters, and food pantries. RESULTS Of the 95 coping strategies identified, 83% were known from nutrition educators previously. Ten new practices (eg, selling blood) had not previously been identified by educators. Four of 10 practices were not found in the literature (eg, repeated participation in research studies). Six practices previously reported by nutrition educators were not mentioned by the study population. IMPLICATIONS Educators who work with limited-resource individuals are a good resource for research with this audience. Study findings may be important considerations for nutrition program planning and policy making.

Diet, Activity and BMI in Preschool-Aged Children: Differences Across Settings

In the present study, children who attended either a University Preschool (UP) or a Head Start (HS) program were studied to determine if they differed in diet, activity, or body mass index (BMI) across settings. Dietary intake over 3 days and motor activity during a free-play period equivalent across settings were measured for 40 children age 4–5 years. Compared to the UP children, the HS children had a higher average food energy intake and lower motor activity. More than half of the HS children were determined to be at the 85th percentile or above on BMI for age and sex compared to little more than a third of the UP children. Apart from the socio-economic and racial/ethnic differences between the two groups of children, the physical environment may also have exerted an impact on activity levels, as the UP classroom and playground were twice as large in square feet in comparison to the HS facilities.

Diet, Activity, and Risk for Overweight in a Sample of Head Start Children

ABSTRACTThis study examines aspects of energy intake and physical activity in two cohorts of low-income 4 to 5-year-old children attending a Head Start preschool program. In the first year, 18 children, predominantly Hispanic and Black, were observed on two occasions near the beginning and end of the school year to examine stability in diet, activity, and weight over time. The following year, a new cohort of 24 children who were all either Hispanic or Black was similarly observed. Along with measures of height, weight, and blood pressure, diet records of everything the children ate or drank at school and at home were completed, and children wore an accelerometer over the length of the school day. No relationships between energy intake and BMI were discerned, but energy expenditure was significantly associated with BMI. Using CDC growth charts, nearly half of the children were classified as overweight or at-risk for overweight. Comparing the non-overweight children with those at risk, energy expenditure an...