Progress 07/01/11 to 06/30/16
Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audience Students, parents, teachers, and administrators of the Bear River Charter School, Edith Bowen Elementary School and Cache County School Districts; undergraduate and graduate students in USU Nutrition and Psychology Departments as this project provided opportunities for research and experiential learning. Changes/Problems: Changes/Problems As previously indicated, specific aim 2 originally included the assessment of change in BMI, but because the preliminary data provided no evidence that BMI changed, even when fruit and vegetable intake increased significantly, we did not follow-up with this assessment. Height and weight were measured and recorded for children at multiple time points, and BMI was controlled for in the models used to examine change in FV intake, but was not assessed as an outcome of the intervention. The cost of the Food Dudes program prohibits us from pursuing the implementation of the program on a wide scale in the U.S. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Opportunities This program provided training and mentoring for more than 20 undergraduate students regarding the implementation and assessment of school-based obesity prevention work. In addition, training was provided by the staff of the project including professionals in Nutrition and Behavioral Science to the teachers and food service staff of the schools were the Food Dudes project was implemented. This project also provided opportunities for collaboration between the research team supporting this project here in the U.S. and the team of researchers including F. Lowe and P. Horne in the U.K. where the program was developed and has been implemented and funded with success across the U.K. Unfortunately, the lead investigator of this effort unexpectedly passed away in 2014. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Dissemination The results of the Food Dudes program were published and broadcast by local news outlets on several occasions. In addition, results of the Food Dudes program were shared with parents, teachers, food service personnel, and administrators of the schools where the program was implemented via emails and newsletters. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Plan of Work The work conducted during this project demonstrated that the Food Dudes program that integrates role modeling, repeated tasting experiences, and a schedule of rewards for the desired behavior of eating more fruits and vegetables may provide a successful strategy to help US children develop healthy eating habits early in life; however, the cost of the program presents a major barrier to wider implementation of this program. Our future work in this area includes the development of a program that provides low-cost virtual incentives for actual behavior. If successful, this would be a low-cost and burden approach to increasing fruit and vegetable intake among children in schools. Our future efforts will also include the development and implementation of a component of the program that targets the dietary behaviors of children away from school and provides education and resources to parents and care-givers. In future studies our assessment of change in dietary behaviors will include estimates of what children are eating at and away from school.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Accomplishments Regarding aim 1: The feasibility of implementing the full Food Dudes program in U.S. elementary schools as previously described within the U.K. school system was assessed. The program was successfully implemented in one school during a pilot study phase in 2010-2011, and in three schools as part of a six school randomized trial of the Food Dudes program in 2011-2012. Approximately 30 undergraduate students primarily from the Nutrition Science, Psychology, and Dietetics programs were trained to serve as research assistants for the data collection and data coding and analysis. This program provided hands on training and experience to these students and contributed to their learning. While the participation of students was helpful and successful in the study design implemented, the number of personnel needed to implement the program with fidelity was high and likely greater than what would be practical for schools to coordinate on their own. A cost analyses of the program determined that the program costs approximately $12.50 per child to implement, which is likely a barrier of the program being adopted for use on a wide scale within the U.S. school system. Regarding aim 2: Change in consumption of fruit and vegetable intake during and after participating in the 16-week Food Dudes intervention was assessed among children attending 5 schools where the program was implemented. In the pilot study, fruit and vegetable intake increased by nearly 100% during the 16-day intervention, and was attenuated but remained elevated (42% increase) over baseline after the 3 month follow-up period. In the intervention trial, children participating in the Food Dudes program had fruit and vegetable intakes that were 50-92% greater than the intakes of children in the control schools after the 16-week intervention, and intakes remained elevated (by 43-46%) at the end of 3-month follow-up period for both the tangible prize, and praise-only incentive conditions, but remained elevated for only the tangible prize group at the end of the 6-month follow-up period. Initial data analysis of the change in body-mass-index percentiles after the implementation of the Food Dudes program in the pilot study provided no evidence that participation in the program was associated with change in BMI. This analysis was not pursued in the randomized trial. Regarding aim 3: The randomized six-school study conducted in 2011-2013 was designed to assess the importance of the tangible reward component of the Food Dudes program. In this study six schools were randomized to either the control condition or to the tangible prize as rewards group or the praise only group. In the Food Dudes Program, we observed that while children in both the prize and praise groups increased fruit and vegetable consumption over the course of the study, that the prize group increased more, and in addition, that only the prize group maintained their higher fruit and vegetable consumption during the three and six month follow-up assessments. Although the tangible rewards seemed important to the behavior outcome of interest in the Food Dudes studies, it was also the component of the program that introduced the biggest barrier to wider implementation.
Publications
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Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15
Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audience Students, parents, teachers, and administrators of the Hillcrest elementary school in the Logan, Utah school district and undergraduate and graduate students in USU Nutrition and Psychology Departments as this project provided opportunities for research and experiential learning. Changes/Problems:Changes/Problems The student assigned to assess associations between change in fruit and vegetable intake and change in BMI took a leave of absence from the University and has not returned (part of SA2). Preliminary data analysis identified no association between fruit and vegetable intake and BMI among children in the 6-school Food Dudes study. Subsequent work has focused on measures of behavior change and BMI has not been assessed as an outcome measure in the studies that have followed. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Opportunities The project provided 2 Master's level graduate students (Jill Fox, Velarie Ansu) and one PhD level graduate student (Damon Joyner) with training in data collection, statistical analysis, and data synthesis on analyses utilizing the data previously collected as part of this work or collected during the pilot studies conducted in 2015. In addition, approximately 10 undergraduate students in the Nutrition and Psychology Departments helped with data collection and study management of the pilot studies conducted at Hillcrest elementary school in the fall of 2015. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Dissemination Dissemination has consisted of 1 peer-reviewed paper, three peer-reviewed abstracts, and accompanying presentations at two national conferences. The work was also summarized in a media report published by the Herald Journal, a local newspaper. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Plan of Work In spring of 2016 we plan to conduct a pilot study of a version of the FIT Game that combines fruit and vegetable consumption goals with physical activity goals to create a comprehensive incentive-based approach to school-based obesity prevention. The pilot study will be implemented in one local school of approximately 500 children. We will continue to work on our publications in progress including the publications of the pilot studies of the different version of FIT Game (2014-2015) as well as a full publication on the long-term (1 year follow-up) of fruit and vegetable consumption of schools that participated in the randomized trial of the Food Dudes intervention. The timing of this follow-up period coincided with the implementation of new standards for the national school lunch program and this analysis will provide an assessment of how that program impacted children's consumption of fruits and vegetables during this period as well.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Accomplishments SA1: Previously we concluded that the Food Dudes program could not feasibly be implemented into the U.S. school system because of the enormous cost and effort needed to run the program with fidelity. In 2015 our effort was focused on the continued development of FIT Game, a school-based intervention designed to address the challenges discovered by our implementation of the Food Dudes in 2011-2013. Our goal was to develop a low-cost, low-labor, incentive-based approach to increasing elementary school children's fruit and vegetable consumption. In 2015, we expanded the focus of the game to include physical activity with the hope of eventually developing a version of the FIT Game designed to target the behaviors of eating fruits and vegetables together with being more physical activity. This approach represents our vision for creating an approach that motivates multiple healthy behaviors. If successful, the approach may be expanded to target other behaviors that would support healthy body weights in children such as well such as drinking milk, limiting added sugars, and getting appropriate amounts of sleep, in addition to eating fruits and vegetables and being more physically active. We also modified the delivery of the game so that much of the narrative is delivered to children in comic-book style posters in the cafeteria instead of in narratives read to children by classroom teachers. This has helped us to reduce the teacher effort and classroom time needed to play the game. One Master's level graduate students (Velarie Ansu) successful completed and defended her Master's degree thesis. Ms. Ansu assessed home consumption of fruits and vegetables prior to and during the intervention phase of one of the pilot implementations of the Fit Game conducted in fall of 2014 at Hillcrest Elementary School. We found that fruit and vegetable consumption at home did not change during the time that children were playing the Fit Game at school. This information is important because it negates the hypothesis that perhaps children compensate for eating more fruits and vegetables at school by eating fewer at home. This seems not be the case. In addition, we learned that the Fit Game program may be improved by implementing components that may target eating behaviors at home specifically. I presented a presentation on this work at the Food and Nutrition Conference of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, in Nashville, Tennessee in October of 2016 (Ansu et at. Relationships between children's fruit and vegetable intake at and away from school. JAND. 2015;115(9):A85). SA2: A paper describing the short and long-term outcomes of a randomized controlled trial of the Food Dudes Program was published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (Morrill et al. 2015; doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2015.07.001. [Epub ahead of print]). A Master's level graduate student (Jill Fox) successfully completed and defended her Master's degree thesis. Ms. Fox assessed the impact of the updated national school lunch program meal standards on fruit and vegetable consumption among elementary school students who had and had not previously participated in the Food Dudes program. We found that children's response to the new NSLP guidelines was more favorable among children who had previously received the Food Dudes program. We interpreted this as evidence that additional measures may be needed to encourage children to consume the amount and variety of FV now being served in schools following the new (2012) NSLP meal patterns. This work was also presented at the Food and Nutrition Conference of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, in Nashville, Tennessee in October of 2016 (Fox et al.) Did prior participation in the Food Dudes program help children eat more fruits and vegetables under the new NSLP standards? JAND. 2015;115(9):A80) SA3: A PhD student (Damon Joyner) is working on the analysis of the pilot work conducted at two elementary schools in 2015 to assess whether or not a version of the Food Dudes known as the FIT Game 2 produces similar results to previous versions of the game. A new version of the game was developed in which the narrative is delivered to children via comic-book style posters placed in the cafeteria instead of in narratives read to children by classroom teachers. The pilot studies have produced results similar to our pilot studies where the narrative was delivered to children by classroom teachers. In this fourth week study vegetable intake increased by 32% and vegetable intake increased by 173%. This work was presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Nutrition Education and Behavior in July 2015 (Joyner et al. FitGame: 2015;47(4):S74).
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
D. J., Wengreen, H., Aguilar, S., Madden, G. (2015). Fit Game: A school-wide game-based fruit and vegetable intervention. (4th ed., vol. 47, pp. S74). Journal of the Society of Nutrition Education and Behavior.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Wengreen, H., J. F., S. A., Madden, G. (2015). Did prior participation in the Food Dudes program help children eat more fruits and vegetables under the new NSLP standards? (9th ed., vol. 115, pp. A80). Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Wengreen, H., Ansu, V., Madden, G. (2015). Relationships between children's fruit and vegetable intake at and away from school. (9th ed., vol. 115, pp. A85). Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
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Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14
Outputs
Target Audience: Target Audience Students, parents, teachers, and administrators of the Ellis and Bridger elementary school in the Logan, Utah school district and undergraduate and graduate students in USU Nutrition and Psychology Departments as this project provided opportunities for research and experiential learning. Changes/Problems: Changes/Problems The Food Dudes program was deemed to be infeasible to implement in the U.S. school system (SA1), so a new sub-aim was proposed to develop and assess a new approach that was similar to the Food-Dudes program, but required less resources from schools, and thus would be more sustainable. The plan of work for 2015 is addressing this new sub-aim. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Opportunities The project provided 10-20 undergraduate students in nutrition and psychology, and 2 MS and 1 PhD graduate level students in nutrition, with training in several school-based data collection techniques, and various forms of data analysis. The team developed a new collaboration with researchers at the University of Utah and Utah State University in the department of TEAL (teaching education and leadership) in the area of physical activity and physical activity assessment. The team aims to develop and test whether the gamification method developed to motivate behavior change related to fruit and vegetable consumption could be applied to the behavior of physical activity. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Dissemination Dissemination has consisted of peer-reviewed publications, presentations at national conferences, conversations with stake-holders at the local and state-level, and invited seminars. The PI (H. Wengreen) was a co-author on 3 peer-reviewed papers that were published in 2014 related to this project and presented at one national conference (Society of Nutrition Education and Behavior) and gave several presentations about the study to internal groups at USU. In addition, the PI developed a relationship with the director of Child and Nutrition Programs for the State of Utah and shared information about the findings observed in the Food Dudes and Fit Games studies. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Plan of Work Plan of work for 2015 by Specific Aim of the project: Specific aim 1 (SA1) - Assess the feasibility of implementing the full Food Dudes program in U.S. elementary schools as described by Lowe et al. in previous publications (Horne 1998, 2004, Lowe 2004). In 2015 we will continue to analyze data from the FIT Game pilot studies conducted in 2014. In addition, we will modify the FIT Game to target physical activity and will test whether or not the FIT Game 2 (targeting physical activity) will increase physical activity among children enrolled in two fourth-grade classes at Hillcrest elementary school. In 2015 we plan to submit a new Ag experiment station proposal to support our continued work in this area. The research proposal will include continued development and testing of the FIT game targeting both fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity related behaviors. SA2 - Assess short (over 4 weeks) and longer-term (over 1 year) changes in fruit and vegetable consumption and change in body mass index-for-age percentiles after implementation of the Food Dudes program. In 2015 we will continue the analysis of the Food Dudes program in 3 elementary schools. A graduate student has been recruited to lead an analyses examining changes in fruit and vegetable over one-year after ending the Food Dudes program. In addition, a new sub-aim was identified. The objective of the new sub-aim is to examine differences in fruit and vegetable consumption before and after the new school lunch program guidelines were implemented in fall of 2012, which required schools to serve a larger amount and greater variety of fruits and vegetables to children in school. The role-in of the new school lunch program guidelines happened to span the follow-up period of the Food Dudes project and is a confounding factor in our analyses regarding longer-term changes in fruit and vegetable consumption. The graduate student who is in charge of assessing associations between BMI and fruit and vegetable intake took a leave of absence from the University in 2014 and is planning to return in 2015 to continue this analysis as well.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Accomplishments SA1) Assess the feasibility of implementing the full Food Dudes program in U.S. elementary schools as described by Lowe et al. in previous publications (Horne 1998, 2004, Lowe 2004). In year two, we determined that because the Food Dudes program required considerable amounts of resources to implement, it was not a feasible method of influencing fruits and vegetable intake among children in U.S. schools. Our efforts in 2014 focused around the development and pilot testing of an intervention called Fit Game, which shared some similarities to the Food Dudes program, but required less resources and time to run in schools. In 2014 we tested the hypothesis that the Fit Game, a program that required little to no resources from schools to run, could motivate children to consume more fruits and vegetables at school. This was tested in three schools, Edith Bowen (spring of 2014) and Bridger and Ellis (fall 2014). We found that at Ellis elementary fruit intake increased by 33% (from an average of 60 grams to 80 grams per child) and vegetable intake increased by 133% (from an average of 18 grams to 42 grams per child). Results were similar for Edith Bowen, but we did not observe increases at Bridger elementary. We believe the null results observed at Bridger elementary were due to the fact that the placement of the intervention material in the cafeteria was difficult to see for some students. In addition, we examined associations between observations of children's fruit and vegetable intake at school and their reported intake of fruits and vegetables at home in an effort to better understand how dietary behaviors at school may influence dietary behaviors at home. In this sub-study of 33 students, we found that when fruit and vegetable intake increased at school during our intervention (fruit intake increased by 87% from 0.16 cups to 0.31 cups; vegetable intake increased by 53% from 0.15 cups to 0.23 cups; p-values <0.01), there was no change in fruit or vegetable consumption at home (p>.5). A graduate students (MS in nutrition, Amanda Jones) successfully defended her thesis titled The Impact of Participation In The Food Dudes Program On Dietary Habits Of Children In 4th and 5th Grade. This was a study of dietary patterns of children who participated in the Food Dudes program as they matriculated into middle school after completing the Food Dudes program. Participants included 874 students who were in 4th and 5th grade in 2011-2012 were followed into 5th and 6th grade in 2012-2013 and fruit and vegetable consumption was assessed. Students who matriculated into 6th grade during our study consumed less fruits and vegetables in 6th grade than they did in 5th grade (0.18 cups compared to 0.45 cups, p>0.05); however students who had previously participated in the Food Dudes intervention were consuming higher levels of fruits and vegetables at the end of their 6th grade year than were 6th grade students who had not previously participated in the school lunch program (0.78 cups vs. 0.50 cups, p<0.05). SA2 - Assess short- (over 4 weeks) and longer-term (over 1 year) changes in fruit and vegetable consumption and change in body mass index-for-age percentiles after implementation of the Food Dudes program. A graduate student was recruited to the project to examine the longer-term (1 year following the intervention) changes in fruit and vegetable consumption after implementation of the Food Dudes program. The PI (H. Wengreen) reported on the preliminary results at the Society of Nutrition, Education, and Behavior conference in Milwaukee in July of 2014. In this analysis we assessed fruit and vegetable intake among children before and after new national school lunch program standards were implemented in the fall of 2012. The new standards happened to be implemented during the follow-up period of our Food Dudes intervention study. We found that among 456 children who were enrolled in control schools in the Food Dudes intervention, average fruit and vegetable consumption decreased from fall of 2011 to fall of 2012 (0.39 cups to 0.34 cups, p<0.05).
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Wengreen, H., Aguilar, S., Madden, G., Socity of Nutrition Education and Behavior, "Does the new nutrition school lunch guidelines result in increased fruit and vegetable consumption?," Milwaukee, WI. (July 2014)
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Progress 01/01/13 to 09/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: Students, parents, teachers, and administrators of the Bear River Charter School and Edith Bowen Elementary School and undergraduate and graduate students in USU Nutrition and Psychology Departments as this project provided opportunities for research and experiential learning. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Approximately 4 food service administrators and 24 teachers received information about how to prepare fruits and vegetables and ways to encourage fruit and vegetable consumption among children. Approximately 20 undergraduate students received training about research methods used in this study. PI Heidi Wengreen attended the annual meeting of the Society of Nutrition Education and Behavior to learn more about recent work in the area of nutrition behavior. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Parents, teachers, and administrators of children attending Bear River Charter School and Edith Bowen Elementary School received information about the Fit Game and results of the pilot studies conducted at the school that their child/children attended. Additional information about the importance of eating fruits and vegetables and tips for how to encourage their children to eat more fruits and vegetables was also provided to them. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Plan of work for 2014 by Specific Aim of the project: Specific aim 1 (SA1) – Assess the feasibility of implementing the full Food Dudes program in U.S. elementary schools as described by Lowe et al. in previous publications (Horne 1998, 2004, Lowe 2004). In 2013 we learned after implementing the Food Dudes program in 3 elementary schools that the individual rewards component of the program was difficult for schools to run with fidelity. Consequently we developed a game-based approach that took the place of the rewards component of the Food Dudes program. We call this game-based approach FIT game; this intervention was piloted in one elementary school in fall of 2013. In 2014 we will analyze data from the FIT game project (n=280) and examine outcomes of interest including group and individual consumption of fruit and vegetables served at lunch on intervention days, as well a home consumption of fruit and vegetables across the study period. SA2 - Assess short (over 4 weeks) and longer-term (over 1 year) changes in fruit and vegetable consumption and change in body mass index-for-age percentiles after implementation of the Food Dudes program. In 2014 we will analyze and report on the longer-term (1 year) changes in fruit and vegetable consumption after implementation of the Food Dudes program. Consumption was assessed in fall of 2011, spring of 2012, fall of 2012, and again in spring of 2013. Prior publications include the endpoints collected in 2011 and 2012, but have not yet included the data collected during the spring of 2013. SA3 - Evaluate the individual components of the program to identify which combination of the three components (role-modeling, repeated tasting, and rewards) is most important to the program’s success. In 2014 we will continue to innovate and pilot test the gamification elements that were introduced as a replacement to the rewards component that we concluded was not sustainable within the U.S. school system. In the next phases of this work we plan to implement two short games that will each be played over a 5 day period in the school cafeteria. Children will be allowed to play the game when the school meets fruit and vegetable consumption goals. Fruit and vegetable intake will be assessed before, during, and after the intervention days. We plan to submit an R01 NIH proposal to provide additional funding to support our work in this area. The research proposal would include continued development and testing of the FIT game and a randomized experimental design that would test the efficacy of this approach for increasing both short and longer term fruit and vegetable intake of children both at and away from school.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
MAJOR ACTIVITIES COMPLETED: 1) The final follow-up for the six-school Food Dudes study (2011-2012) was completed. In this follow-up we assessed lunch-time fruit and vegetable consumption of approximately 1200 children who continued to attend one of six elementary school that participated in the study in 2011-2012. In addition, 5th graders were assessed after transitioning to 6th grade and secondary schools in 2012-2013. 2) The Fit Game was created as an innovation to the original Food Dudes program. It was implemented as a pilot project in two elementary schools in 2013. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE MET: SA2) Longer term changes in fruit and vegetable consumption among children who participated in the Food Dudes program in 2011-2012 were assessed by assessing the fruit and vegetable intake of children again in spring of 2013. SA3). The reward component of the original Food Dudes program was found to be efficacious, but unsustainable in the current model of public schools in the U.S. The reward component of the program was changed from the daily tangible rewards offered over a 16-day period to a model of intangible rewards that could be sustained in a school without extra costs and for a longer period of time. In this new innovation, the intangible reward offered to children is an installment of a compelling action-packed space adventure. The series of stories feature new and improved Food Dudes, who gain special powers and privileges when students participating in the program meet their fruit or vegetable consumption goal for the day. The stories are read to students in their classrooms by their teachers before they go to lunch each day. Students are read an installment only when the school met the consumption goal for the previous day. Consumption goals are based on a sliding scale of a percent of the previous 10 days consumption of fruit or vegetable and are designed to slowly increase the consumption of fruit and vegetable over a period of time. SIGNIFICANT RESULTS ACHIEVED: 1) We determined that the Food Dudes program was neither sustainable in the U.S. school system not resulted in long term changes in fruit and vegetable intake. The Fit Game was created and pilot studies testing the efficacy of this innovation were implemented in two elementary schools. 2) A Database of 50,000+ different photographs of children’s selection and intake of foods provided by the national school lunch program was created. 3). The skin carotenoids were validated as an accurate and reliable assessment of carotenoid containing fruit and vegetable consumption among children. KEY IMPACTS: Change in knowledge) It is assumed that 24 teachers, 2 administrators, and approximately 500 children and their families increased their awareness and knowledge of the important of eating a variety of fruits and vegetables for health and wellness after participating in the Fit Games program in 2013. Change in action) Children attending elementary school at the two schools who received pilots of the Fit Games intervention ate approximately 20% more vegetable and 60% more fruit at the end of the Fit Game intervention (4-6 weeks, depending on the school) than they did at the baseline assessments (p<0.01). We do not know if this change will be maintained over a longer period of time. Change in condition) The Fit Game appears to enhance support for eating fruits and vegetables in the schools cafeterias where it is implemented. Children report that they enjoy playing the game and this has increased the motivation for eating fruits and vegetables among children attending these schools.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Wengreen, H., Madden, G., Aguilar, S., Rochelle, S. R., Brooke, J. A. (2013). Incentivizing children's fruit and vegetable consumption: Results of a US pilot-study of the Food Dudes program. Journal of Nutrition, Education, & Behavior, 45, 54-59.
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Progress 01/01/12 to 12/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: "Activities: 1) In the 2011-2012 school year the Food Dudes program was implemented and outcome measures were evaluated in 4 elementary schools in the Cache School District. In addition, outcome measures were evaluated in 2 additional schools that served as control schools and did not receive the Food Dudes program. 2) Two internally funded projects were awarded to PIs Wengreen and Madden. The first project was funded by the USU agriculture experiment and was titled Does the Food Dudes Healthy Eating Program change children's intake of more than just fruits and vegetables The second project was funded by the USU VP for research office was titled Validation of the skin carotenoid concentrations as a biomarker of fruit and vegetable intake among children. Data for the USU agriculture experiment station was collected in spring of 2011 and fall of 2012. The validation study was completed in fall 0f 2012. 3) Several undergraduate students (>10), 4 MS students, and 1 PhD student were mentored by PIs Wengreen and Madden. 4) Dr. Madden and his student presented information related to this project at the Association for Behavior Analysis International in Seattle, Washington in May of 2012. A paper describing results of the pilot study of the Food Dudes program was accepted written and accepted for publication in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. Events: Approximately 60 teachers and additional food service personnel in the four intervention schools received ongoing training regarding the implementation of the Food Dudes program. They were exposed to simple messages about nutrition through the Food Dudes videos and letters and to additional fruits and vegetable in the cafeteria during the implementation phase of the program. The Food Dudes program was implemented over 4-5 months in each of the four intervention schools. Products: 1) The diet assessment tool used to assess total diet of fruits, vegetables, beverages, and snacks in the evaluation of the Foods Dudes program was adapted for use in the validation study. 2) A professional writer and artist were hired to develop a new story line and characters for use in future studies of the Food Dudes program." PARTICIPANTS: "Heidi Wengreen, co-PI, project development, design of outcome measures, implementation, data collection, data analysis, data assessment, dissemination Greg Madden, co-PI, project development, design of outcome measures, implementation, data collection, dissemination Sheryl Aguilar, project coordinator Fergus Low, Consultant, Bangor University, Wales" TARGET AUDIENCES: "Students, parents, teachers, and administrators of the Cache County School District, and Edith Bowen elementary schools USU Nutrition Department Undergraduate and graduate students - by providing opportunities for practicum and research experience." PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
"Change in knowledge: It is assumed that 60 teachers, 4 administrators, and approximately 1500 children and their families increased their awareness and knowledge of the important of eating a variety of fruits and vegetables for health and wellness after participating in the Food Dudes program in 2011-2012. Change in action: Children attending elementary school at the four schools who received full or partial Food Dudes programs ate approximately 22% more total fruit and vegetable after the 16-day implementation phase of the program. This was significantly more than the amount of total fruit and vegetable eaten by children in the control school (p<0.01). This change in intake was not maintained over the 3 month follow-up period. Change in condition: 1) The Food Dudes program does not appear to result in lasting changes to fruit and vegetable intake among children in U.S. schools and PIs Wengreen and Madden are currently leading efforts to modify the program to improve the practicality of running the program in U.S. schools, as we suspect low teacher fidelity may have affected our results, and to employ additional strategies that may result in long term changes to dietary patterns in children."
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/11 to 12/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Activities: 1) In the 2010 - 2011 school year the Food Dudes program was implemented at one elementary school in Logan, Utah (n=253). 2) Two funding proposal with Dr. Madden and Wengreen as co-principle investigators were submitted and funded by USDA to further develop and implement in the Food Dudes program in local schools. 3) One paper describing the results of the pilot study was submitted for publication (Journal of Nutrition, Education, and Behavior; November 2011). 4) Six schools were recruited to participate in the USDA funded implementation of the program in the 2011-2012 school year. 5) Three graduate students, 2 MS level nutrition students, and 1 PhD level psychology student were mentored by Drs. Wengreen and Madden. 6) Drs. Wengreen and Madden presented information related to this project at several national and local scientific meetings in the fields of psychology, nutrition, and epidemiology. These meetings included the National Association of Behavioral Psychologists (n=1000), the American Dietetic Association meetings (n=10,000), and the Center for Epidemiologic Research seminar series (n=40). Services: 1) The principle investigator is serving as chair of the graduate committees for two students in agricultural sciences and working on this project. 2) The principle investigator also served as the faculty mentor for approximately 10 nutrition science students who participated in the implementation of the Food Dudes program in local elementary schools in fall of 2011. This contributed to the experiential learning and research opportunities these students must participate in to meet requirements for graduation in the Dietetic and Nutrition Science programs at Utah State University. Events: Approximately 120 teachers and food service personnel in the target schools were trained in August of 2011 on how to implement the Food Dudes program with fidelity. Products: 1) The principle investigator helped design software that was developed by an external company (Advent Creative) to track fidelity measures of the implementation of the Food Dudes program at the instructor level. It is expected that level of implementation fidelity is a significant factor in the success of the program and has not previously been investigated. 2) A diet assessment tool was developed to assess total day fruit, vegetable, beverage, and snack food intake of participants in fourth and fifth grade. This tool is critical to the team's ability to assess the impact of increasing fruit and vegetable intake at school, to total daily intake, and to the potential displacement of less nutrient dense foods. 3) The principle investigator was invited by the developers of the Food Dudes program to visit Bangor University, in Wales. This visit helped support continued collaboration between the principle investigators and the Food Dudes team in Wales. Strategies for future funding proposals were discussed and a submission to an NIH funding mechanism is planned for 2012. 4) The launch of the Food Dudes program in 2011 was covered by several local news channels and outlets. PARTICIPANTS: Heidi Wengreen, co-PI, project development, design of outcome measures, implementation, data collection, data analysis, data assessment, dissemination Greg Madden, co-PI, project development, design of outcome measures, implementation, data collection, dissemination Sheryl Aguilar, project coordinator Fergus Low, Consultant, Bangor University, Wales TARGET AUDIENCES: Students, parents, teachers, and administrators of the Cache County School District, and Edith Bowen elementary schools. USU Nutrition Department Undergraduate and graduate students - by providing opportunities for practicum and research experience. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Change in knowledge: The majority of 12 public school teachers, 6 food service personnel, 2 administrators, and 253 students and their families increased their knowledge of the important of eating a variety of fruits and vegetables for health and wellness after participating in the Food Dudes program in 2010-2011. Preliminary data providing evidence of the success of the Food Dudes program has increased the support for this program among administration, teachers, and parents of the schools who were recruited to participate in the program in 2011-2012. Change in action: Children attending Edith Bowen elementary schools who participated in the Food Dudes program ate approximately 40% more fruits and vegetables after the program than they did before the program. In addition, 30% of parents of who participated in the program reported consuming more fruits and vegetables themselves. Change in condition: 1) The Edith Bowen elementary school food service staff now provides more fruits and vegetables for students who participate in the school lunch program. They continue to serve red peppers and blueberries, two foods introduced by the Food Dudes program in 2010-2011.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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