Sondra M. Parmer

School gardens: an experiential learning approach for a nutrition education program to increase fruit and vegetable knowledge, preference, and consumption among second-grade students.

OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of a school garden on childrens fruit and vegetable knowledge, preference, and consumption. DESIGN Self-report questionnaires, interview-style taste and rate items, lunchroom observations. SETTING An elementary school. PARTICIPANTS Second-grade students (n = 115). INTERVENTION Participants were assigned to one of 3 groups: (1) nutrition education and gardening (NE+G) treatment group, (2) nutrition education only (NE) treatment group, or (3) control group (CG). Both treatment groups received classroom instruction, and the NE+G group also received a school gardening experience. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Fruit and vegetable knowledge, preference, and consumption. ANALYSIS Analyses of variance (alpha = .05). RESULTS Participants in the NE+G and NE treatment groups exhibited significantly greater improvements in nutrition knowledge and taste ratings than did participants in the CG. Moreover, the NE+G group was more likely to choose and consume vegetables in a lunchroom setting at post-assessment than either the NE or CG groups. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS School gardens as a component of nutrition education can increase fruit and vegetable knowledge and cause behavior change among children. These findings suggest that school administrators, classroom teachers, and nutrition educators should implement school gardens as a way to positively influence dietary habits at an early age.

Measures of Food Insecurity/Security

ABSTRACT Nutrition education has the potential to play an important role in ensuring food security and improving nutritional status. Therefore, food security is recommended for inclusion in nutrition education evaluation efforts. Considerable progress has been made in developing brief tools that can be used to measure food security at the household level. These tools are reliable in population-based surveys, and some studies have found that measures of food security are associated with nutrient intake. Hence, these tools can be valuable in monitoring, in community needs assessment, and in planning. These tools may also have the potential for use in evaluating nutrition education activities; this potential will be enhanced by research into the capacity of these tools to identify changes within households over time as a result of nutrition education and their sensitivity and reliability in doing so.

Changes in Fruit and Vegetable Consumption of Third-Grade Students in Body Quest: Food of the Warrior, a 17-Class Childhood Obesity Prevention Program

OBJECTIVE To increase fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption of youth in Body Quest: Food of the Warrior (BQ), a childhood obesity prevention program. DESIGN Quasi-experimental. SETTING Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education eligible schools (n = 60). PARTICIPANTS Third-grade students (n = 2,477). INTERVENTION Treatment groups (n = 1,674) self-reported foods consumed through the School Lunch Program for 17 weekly assessments; they participated in BQ curriculum, iPad app education, and weekly FV tastings. Control groups (n = 803) completed only pre- and post-assessments. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Weekly FV consumed through School Lunch Program. ANALYSIS ANCOVA and growth modeling. RESULTS From before to after the program, the treatment group demonstrated significant, moderate increases in fruit (P < .01) and vegetable (P < .001) consumptions, increasing from 7 to 8 weekly FV servings. After the program, the treatment group consumed significantly (P < .001) more FV than the control group. Fruit and vegetable consumption increased to class 10 and then stabilized. From before to after the program, all FV predictors were significantly higher and included gender (vegetables), race (FV), and free/reduced lunch (fruit). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Nutrition programs can increase FV intake. Even moderate increases in FV intake can be an initial step for the prevention of chronic disease.

Body Quest Parent: A Text Message Parent Education Intervention to Supplement a School-Based Obesity Prevention Initiative for Third-Graders

School-based nutrition interventions can be a tool for encouraging parents to improve home food environments. However, interventions should address barriers to receiving and applying nutrition education such as time, money, transportation, preferences of family members, and limited cooking skills.1 Text-based education may address these barriers. Research shows that 91% of American adults are cell phone owners and 78% of lower-income cell phone owners send and receive texts.2

My Quest, an Intervention Using Text Messaging to Improve Dietary and Physical Activity Behaviors and Promote Weight Loss in Low-Income Women

Objective: To evaluate changes in dietary and physical activity behaviors and weight after implementation of a 12‐week text messaging initiative (My Quest). Design: The researchers conducted a 1‐group, pre‐ to posttest study design to determine changes after implementation of a text messaging initiative developed using the tenets of the Social Cognitive Theory. Setting: A total of 55 Alabama counties (84% rural) with high rates of poverty, overweight/obesity, and chronic diseases. Participants: Convenience sample of low‐income, primarily overweight/obese women (n = 104). Intervention: Short texts (n = 2–3/d) provided health tips, reminders, and goal‐setting prompts. Weekly electronic newsletters provided tips and recipes. Participant self‐monitored body weight weekly. Main Outcome Measure: Outcomes included goal setting, self‐efficacy, behavioral and environmental factors, self‐monitoring, and body weight; data collection occurred through text message response and online surveys. Analysis: Analyses were conducted using McNemar test (dichotomous data), Wilcoxon signed rank test (ordinal data), or paired t test (continuous data). Results: Participants significantly (P < .05) improved dietary and physical activity behaviors and food environment; increased dietary and physical activity goal setting; and reduced body weight. Conclusions and Implications: A low‐cost, text messaging initiative particularly targeting women residing in rural communities with high rates of poverty and obesity can promote weight loss and improve dietary and physical activity behaviors. Future studies may include a control group and social support component such as group text messaging.