Understanding, preventing and reducing childhood obesity remains an important public health concern because of a general lack of effective intervention programs and policies. Efforts to assess economic, policy and social factors contributing to childhood obesity among health disparities populations are yet to be comprehensively undertaken for underserved minority populations and in rural settings and to be included in interventions. Therefore, the overall objective of the School Wellness Assesment and Advocacy Project (SWAAP) is to comprehensively assess the various determinants of childhood obesity in comparative rural and urban settings, and use the information to design, implement and evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of a tailored intervention.
The specific aims of the study are: 1) Assess the awareness and knowledge level about federal and state nutrition and physical activity policies among study participants;2) Assess the level of physical activities among the study participants;3) Assess the influence of the school and community policy and environments on dietary and physical activity behaviors among study participants; 4) Evaluate accessibility, availability, and affordability of healthy foods using GIS-based food environment mapping in the study area;5) Implement a modified CATCH Texas intervention program tailored on the baseline data to positively influence knowledge, attitude and behavior among study participants;and 6) Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the evidence-based tailored intervention program. Study participants are primarily health disparities populations in select elementary school children, their parents, and school stakeholders (teachers, staff and administrators) in the study area comprising of rural and urban counties in the Brazos Valley (7 counties) and Waller County, TX. The research project will use the Precede-Proceed framework to gather the data in Phase I and use the information generated to develop a tailored eight-month intervention in Phase II. A quasi-experimental pretest and posttest with comparison group research desgin will be used to implement the intervention program based on the theory of planned behavior. Outcomes to be measured are stabilization and decrease in weight among intervention participants, specifically, and improvements in health and decrease in health disparities, generally.
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