Performing Department
Agriculture
Non Technical Summary
The lack of diversity in the nutrition- and health-related professions is well recognized, with racial and ethnic minority groups severely underrepresented. With a predicted surge in the minority populations, and a parallel rise in obesity and its related chronic diseases, trainees and graduates of diverse backgrounds are greatly needed to fill positions in nutrition and health that deliver programs to meet the needs of underserved populations. Thus, the objectives of this project are to: 1) instruct and train students in age appropriate healthy behaviors; 2) engage students to develop and evaluate various research modalities of the effect of early obesity prevention intervention to sustain training in early childhood healthier nutrition, lifestyle behaviors, health assessment, and childcare provision; 3) develop and extend community outreach activities and implement various techniques that will provide a network of early childhood educators, professionals, researchers, and students to monitor and sustain preventive impacts for all children at high risk of disparities in obesity; and 4) provide professional development, technical assistance, and mentorship opportunities to students and foster development of leadership skills through the integrated activities of education, research and extension in early childhood obesity prevention. We will recruit, engage and retain 30 underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities and disadvantaged students into a 12-week paid fellowship aimed at increasing knowledge and preparation for entry into nutrition- and health-related careers and/or higher education. Fellows will engage in didactic and experiential learning activities to develop, implement, and evaluate interventional approaches promoting healthy nutrition, physical activity, and child care from birth-36 months. Fellows will receive extensive one-on-one mentoring, career development training, networking, and professional development activities to facilitate leadership and job ready skills. By the end of the 12-week fellowship for each year, students will develop a career plan that shows next steps to pursue additional education and/or employment in the field of early childhood obesity prevention, have the ability to design curricula materials, and develop manuscripts and abstracts.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
40%
Applied
60%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
The project objectives are: 1) instruct and train students in age appropriate healthy behaviors during pregnancy, infancy and childhood that impact early childhood obesity prevention strategies; 2) engage students to develop and evaluate various research modalities of the effect of early obesity prevention intervention to sustain training in early childhood healthier nutrition, lifestyle behaviors, health assessment, and childcare provision; 3) develop and extend community outreach activities and implement various techniques that will provide a network of early childhood educators, professionals, researchers and students to monitor and sustain preventive impacts for children at high risk of disparities in obesity; and 4) provide professional development, technical assistance and mentorship opportunities to students and foster development of leadership skills through the integrated activities of research, education, and extension in early childhood obesity prevention.
Project Methods
We will use several strategies describing the fellowship and eligibility requirements including flyers, websites, newsletters, academic advisors, student organizations, student health center, social media platforms (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) and a newly created website page for the P.E.C.O.P Fellowship program for recruitment. Applications to the fellowship will be reviewed and rated by a panel of three independent reviewers based on the following criteria: 1) grade point average (GPA) of 2.5 or higher; 2) underrepresented minority or disadvantaged background; 3) have interest in nutrition and dietetics, human sciences, early childhood education, and agricultural sciences; 4) must be of junior standing; and 5) a personal statement. Education - Fellows will begin by attending the one-week online introductory course. Subjects covered will include nutrition and physical activity, early childhood development, biology of the gut microbiota, gardening, community assessment and GIS mapping, and machine learning modeling; all adapted to meet the needs of underrepresented families and communities. Instruction on age-appropriate basic teaching methods and classroom management strategies and guidance on the importance of learning about the intervention participants' culture and characteristics to be culturally sensitive will occur. Hands-on-sessions discussing how to design, develop, and evaluate community-based early childhood obesity prevention will occur. Recommendations for promoting healthy nutrition, increased physical activity, and early education based on the social ecology framework will come from child expert organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics - Preventing Childhood Obesity in Early Care and Education, and United States Development of Agriculture - Nutrition Education for Preschoolers. Research - Prior to engaging in research work, fellows will complete the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiatives (CITI) certificate to understand research ethics and protocols for conducting research.Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping of food environment - Fellows will be engaged in research to study the role of the physical food environment and impact of food deserts on individuals' food choices, health outcomes, and obesity prevalence. Fellows will be trained to use GIS mapping to characterize local food and built environment in dimensions of availability, accessibility, and demand for healthy foods, community gardens, farmers' markets, physical activity resources, and obesity rates. Fellows will analyze the data and gain insights on food desert conditions to determine the level of household/family food insecurity and its relationship to the risk of early childhood obesity. Host-Gut microbiome interactions - The gut microbiome is thought to contribute to diet processing, inflammatory processes and weight regulation linked to obesity.Assessing eating behaviors, in relation to modulatory effects of the microbiome by the diet, will enable fellows to better appreciate the effects of the biological environment on developing obesity. To evaluate the gut microbiome in humans, fellows will teach mothers to collect stool samples and saliva from their children before and after interventions.Fecal microbiota composition of mothers and infants will be assessed by bacterial 16s rRNA sequencing and gene expression. Machine learning for personalized meal planning on a budget - Fellows will use the specific individual data collected in mapping, microbiome research and intervention to generate various algorithms to assess the participant nutritional, wellness, and risk profile. This data is used to generate a personalized cost-effective nutrition meal plans to promote good dietary choices and a health plan focusing on local food availability. The personalized plans generated will support families and childcare providers with specific cost-effective balanced nutrition and physical activity, which responds to the child's physical, socioeconomic, and psychosocial needs to attain optimal health. These algorithms will also generate healthy shopping choices within budget considerations for families and childcare places. Student-led community garden training - Fellows will be mentored and trained in gardening to promote growing healthy food and reducing obesity. Fellows will work on the PVAMU farm to practice weeding, seeding and planting in containers and raised beds, and harvesting selected fruits and vegetables. Fellows will teach families, community members and childcare places to build gardens for planting fruits and vegetables to improve access and availability to fresh produce. Identified community members, together with peer mentors and fellows, will assume leadership for garden care and sustainability. Extension - The trained fellows will participate in recruitment of mother-child dyads and childcare centers, intervention curriculum development, intervention implementation, and program evaluation. Targeted underrepresented and low-income population recruitment will occur through the distribution of fliers and social media messages in English and Spanish. Fellows will work with our collaborating organization, WIC at Waller Pregnancy Care Center and PVWIC and the mapped out area in Waller County to identify and recruit women at birth and mothers with children 3 months-3 years. Fellows will recruit 15 new mothers and newborns. Simultaneously, fellows will recruit 15 mother-child dyads with children between 3 and 36 months old, as well as the childcare center providers for the child, and five community volunteers in the mapped out neighborhoods. Fellows will use validated questionnaires and standardized instruments/equipment to obtain data on weight, height/length, body mass index, nutrition, physical activity (where applicable), sleep patterns, and childcare information at pre- and post-intervention. Based upon this data, they will conduct six weeks of nutrition, physical activity and early childcare education interventions with mother-child dyads and childcare providers to promote healthier lifestyles to reduce early childhood obesity. Fellows will assist our collaborating organization, the Houston Food Bank, with the support and direction of the collaborating personnel to distribute food and healthy grocery bags, and deliver nutrition education programs to participating mothers who may be at risk for food insecurity. Shopping on budget and meal planning, designed with machine learning based on personal characteristics, will be encouraged by fellow-led grocery store tours with mothers and childcare providers. Additionally, fellows will learn about food safety, how to prepare, cook, handle and store culturally acceptable foods in order to conduct cooking demonstrations of healthy meals and snacks. Fellows will work alongside peer mentors to educate families, childcare staff and the five selected community members to plant gardens. Through these range of learning activities, fellows will develop leadership skills including communication, critical thinking and problem solving skills necessary to support decision making and planning.Formative evaluation will be used to determine whether each cohort of fellows meet knowledge scores and educational learning goals by examining with descriptive statistics. The target is that 80% of fellowship participants will increase their knowledge by 10% from pre- to post-test fellowship. This goal will enable PDs to assess and improve fellowship components should the benchmarks in any year not be met. For summative evaluation, fellows' significant increase of their knowledge and skills of developing, implementing, and evaluating nutrition, physical activity, and early child care interventions in community settings will be measured across the three years of the project (n=30) using a t-test to compare pre- and posttest knowledge scores for the 30 fellows.