The Boss' Healthy Buddies Nutrition Resource Is Effective for Elementary School Students

Overview

Journal J Obes

Publisher Wiley

Specialty Endocrinology

Date 2018 Jun 2

PMID 29854438

Citations 1

Authors

David W Pittman

Ida R Bland

Isai D Cabrera

Kassie E Franck

Emily L Perkins

Nicole A Schmidt

Heather N Allen

Savanah R Atkins

Sharyn B Pittman

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Previously we have shown that our Healthy Eating Decisions school-based intervention can influence students' selections of the healthiest foods available in their elementary school cafeterias through positive reinforcement techniques. Although effective, we recognized that students were missing fundamental nutrition knowledge necessary to understand why the Healthy Eating Decisions program identified particular beverages and foods as the healthiest in the cafeteria. Therefore, we developed the Boss' Healthy Buddies nutrition education resource as a freely available curriculum matched with South Carolina education standards and designed for elementary school students from kindergarten through fourth grade. The current study implemented Boss' Healthy Buddies and compared its efficacy to a commercially available nutrition program, CATCH. Elementary school students in Spartanburg, South Carolina, received weekly twenty-minute Boss' Healthy Buddies lessons for eight weeks. Results from preassessment and postassessment surveys were compared with a positive control elementary school using the CATCH program and a negative control school receiving no nutrition education. Results show that Boss' Healthy Buddies was equally effective as the CATCH program in improving the nutrition attitudes regarding healthiest beverages and food selections with the advantage of being freely available and minimizing the impact on classroom instruction time. In order to reduce most effectively the high prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity, it is crucial that children are taught nutrition education to support healthy eating habits at an early age. Both the Healthy Eating Decisions school-based intervention and the Boss' Healthy Buddies nutrition education program are available online for use as free resources to aid in reducing childhood overweight and obesity within elementary schools.

Citing Articles

Integrating nutrition into the mathematics curriculum in Australian primary schools: protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Follong B, Prieto-Rodriguez E, Miller A, Collins C, Bucher T Nutr J. 2020; 19(1):128.

PMID: 33243231 PMC: 7694306. DOI: 10.1186/s12937-020-00640-x.

References

Azadbakht L, Mirmiran P, Esmaillzadeh A, Azizi T, Azizi F . Beneficial effects of a Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension eating plan on features of the metabolic syndrome. Diabetes Care. 2005; 28(12):2823-31. DOI: 10.2337/diacare.28.12.2823. View

Young T, Dean H, Flett B . Childhood obesity in a population at high risk for type 2 diabetes. J Pediatr. 2000; 136(3):365-9. DOI: 10.1067/mpd.2000.103504. View

Larsen A, McArdle J, Robertson T, Dunton G . Four Dietary Items of the School Physical Activity and Nutrition (SPAN) Questionnaire Form a Robust Latent Variable Measuring Healthy Eating Patterns. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2015; 47(3):253-8. PMC: 5854156. DOI: 10.1016/j.jneb.2014.12.005. View

Young-Hyman D, Schlundt D, Herman L, De Luca F, Counts D . Evaluation of the insulin resistance syndrome in 5- to 10-year-old overweight/obese African-American children. Diabetes Care. 2001; 24(8):1359-64. DOI: 10.2337/diacare.24.8.1359. View

Datar A, Sturm R, Magnabosco J . Childhood overweight and academic performance: national study of kindergartners and first-graders. Obes Res. 2004; 12(1):58-68. DOI: 10.1038/oby.2004.9. View

Hollar D, Messiah S, Lopez-Mitnik G, Hollar T, Almon M, Agatston A . Effect of a two-year obesity prevention intervention on percentile changes in body mass index and academic performance in low-income elementary school children. Am J Public Health. 2010; 100(4):646-53. PMC: 2836343. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.165746. View

Ogden C, Carroll M, Lawman H, Fryar C, Kruszon-Moran D, Kit B . Trends in Obesity Prevalence Among Children and Adolescents in the United States, 1988-1994 Through 2013-2014. JAMA. 2016; 315(21):2292-9. PMC: 6361521. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2016.6361. View

Thiagarajah K, Fly A, Hoelscher D, Bai Y, Lo K, Leone A . Validating the food behavior questions from the elementary school SPAN questionnaire. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2008; 40(5):305-10. DOI: 10.1016/j.jneb.2007.07.004. View

Dietz W . Childhood weight affects adult morbidity and mortality. J Nutr. 1998; 128(2 Suppl):411S-414S. DOI: 10.1093/jn/128.2.411S. View

10.

Anderson S, He X, Schoppe-Sullivan S, Must A . Externalizing behavior in early childhood and body mass index from age 2 to 12 years: longitudinal analyses of a prospective cohort study. BMC Pediatr. 2010; 10:49. PMC: 2912880. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2431-10-49. View

11.

Wang F, Wild T, Kipp W, Kuhle S, Veugelers P . The influence of childhood obesity on the development of self-esteem. Health Rep. 2009; 20(2):21-7. View

12.

Coleman K, Tiller C, Sanchez J, Heath E, Sy O, Milliken G . Prevention of the epidemic increase in child risk of overweight in low-income schools: the El Paso coordinated approach to child health. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2005; 159(3):217-24. DOI: 10.1001/archpedi.159.3.217. View

13.

Ebbeling C, Pawlak D, Ludwig D . Childhood obesity: public-health crisis, common sense cure. Lancet. 2002; 360(9331):473-82. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(02)09678-2. View

14.

The N, Suchindran C, North K, Popkin B, Gordon-Larsen P . Association of adolescent obesity with risk of severe obesity in adulthood. JAMA. 2010; 304(18):2042-7. PMC: 3076068. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2010.1635. View

15.

Hoelscher D, Feldman H, Johnson C, Lytle L, Osganian S, Parcel G . School-based health education programs can be maintained over time: results from the CATCH Institutionalization study. Prev Med. 2004; 38(5):594-606. DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2003.11.017. View

16.

Pittman D, Parker J, Getz B, Jackson C, P Le T, Riggs S . Cost-free and sustainable incentive increases healthy eating decisions during elementary school lunch. Int J Obes (Lond). 2011; 36(1):76-9. DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2011.205. View

17.

Osganian S, Ebzery M, Montgomery D, Nicklas T, Evans M, MITCHELL P . Changes in the nutrient content of school lunches: results from the CATCH Eat Smart Food service Intervention. Prev Med. 1996; 25(4):400-12. DOI: 10.1006/pmed.1996.0072. View

18.

Falkner N, Neumark-Sztainer D, Story M, Jeffery R, Beuhring T, Resnick M . Social, educational, and psychological correlates of weight status in adolescents. Obes Res. 2001; 9(1):32-42. DOI: 10.1038/oby.2001.5. View

19.

Hales C, Carroll M, Fryar C, Ogden C . Prevalence of Obesity Among Adults and Youth: United States, 2015-2016. NCHS Data Brief. 2017; (288):1-8. View

20.

Hoelscher D, Day R, Kelder S, Ward J . Reproducibility and validity of the secondary level School-Based Nutrition Monitoring student questionnaire. J Am Diet Assoc. 2003; 103(2):186-94. DOI: 10.1053/jada.2003.50031. View