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An Outcome and Process Evaluation of ‘Food Fit:’ A Theory Based Childhood Overweight Prevention Curriculum

Branscum, Paul Wesley

Abstract Details

2008, Master of Science, Ohio State University, Human Nutrition and Food Management.
In the United States, the prevalence of childhood overweight has more than tripled in the past three decades. Among risk factors commonly associated with this increase, poor diet quality has been noted as a major contributor and promising area for intervention. However, mostly mixed and modest outcomes have been reported for many child-based interventions that aim to improve diet quality. This is reportedly due to limitations that have been noted in their methodology, design, implementation, and evaluation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of a new theoretically based (Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)) nutrition curriculum Food Fit (FF), designed to overcome limitations noted from previous studies. The FF program was implemented and evaluated with children at five after school sites (n=58). Evaluations included a per lesson pre and posttest to evaluate psychosocial variables of SCT (behavioral capabilities (BC), self-efficacy (SE), and outcome expectancies (OE)) and a standardized instrument was administered to evaluated dietary behaviors. A process evaluation was used to assure program integrity. At the end of each lesson, children were given a free choice between food items categorized as either healthy-choice (HC) or unhealthy-choice (UC), and reported the main reason for their selection after choosing. Differences in psychosocial variables were evaluated between the children in these two groups. Statistically significant increases were found for specific psychosocial variables (i.e. self efficacy for eating fruit as a snack (p<.03), positive outcome expectancies for eating raw vegetables (p<.009)), as well as related dietary behaviors (increased consumption of fruits and vegetables as snacks (p=.0014), citrus fruits and juice (p=.0209), raw vegetables (p=.0006), and increased use of the food label (p=.0017)). Most children who chose an UC reported taste most frequently, while those who chose a HC reported a positive health attribute (such as has less sugar) most frequently. Children who chose a HC also appeared to have higher OE scores than children who chose an UC. These results suggest that participation in the FF program can positively and significantly enhance psychosocial varialbes of SCT related to specific dietary behaviors, which in turn, correspondes with signficicant improvements in these dietary behaviors.
Gail Kaye, PhD (Advisor)
Jackie Buell, PhD (Committee Member)
Hugo Melar-Quinonez, PhD (Committee Member)
117 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Branscum, P. W. (2008). An Outcome and Process Evaluation of ‘Food Fit:’ A Theory Based Childhood Overweight Prevention Curriculum [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1211391771

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Branscum, Paul. An Outcome and Process Evaluation of ‘Food Fit:’ A Theory Based Childhood Overweight Prevention Curriculum. 2008. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1211391771.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Branscum, Paul. "An Outcome and Process Evaluation of ‘Food Fit:’ A Theory Based Childhood Overweight Prevention Curriculum." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1211391771

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)