Evaluation of the Computer-Based Intervention Program Stayingfit Brazil to Promote Healthy Eating Habits: The Results from a School Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Interventions via the Internet are promising regarding the promotion of healthy habits among youth. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of an adapted version of StayingFit to promote healthy eating habits and the measurement adequacy of anthropometric markers among adolescents. A web school-based 12-month cluster-randomized controlled trial examining 7th to 9th grade students was conducted in twelve schools in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. The schools’ students were randomly distributed into the intervention and control groups. The intervention group participated in StayingFit, an online program designed to encourage and guide healthy eating habits and control body weight. Data on food consumption, anthropometry, physical activity level, and sedentary behavior were collected from all of the students at the beginning of and after the 12-month study. Demographic and socioeconomic data were collected at baseline. The baseline data indicated high rates of overweight (14.4% overweight and 8.5% obese), insufficiently active (87.6%), and sedentary (63.7%). Furthermore, few adolescents regularly consumed fruits (18.8%) and vegetables/legumes (16.4%). Generalized estimating equations (GEEs) were used to evaluate the effect of the intervention. At the end of the follow-up period, students in the intervention group had a 43% increased chance of regularly consuming beans (OR = 1.43, 95% CIs = 1.10–1.86) and a 35% decreased chance of regularly consuming soft drinks (OR = 0.65, 95% CIs = 0.50–0.84). No differences were found between the groups studied with regard to the anthropometric parameters. Despite these modest results, the implementation of a web intervention can be beneficial and help promote positive changes in adolescent eating habits.

Scoping Review on Interventions for Physical Activity and Physical Literacy Components in Brazilian School-Aged Children and Adolescents

“…Interventions in both children and adolescents resulted in changes in the school environment; however, with children, interventions were focused on sports materials (ropes, ball, bows, cone, mat, tape and rubber bands, and track designed with colors) [56,59,66,68,76]. Interventions with adolescents focused on access to booklets, pamphlets, posters, banners, and exercise guides [19,20,[22][23][24][25][26][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][44][45][46][47][48][49]51,78]. Only adolescents had the opportunity to interact electronically with instructional SMS for PA practice with motivational messages about environmental changes and access to information on healthy eating habits and creation of an electronic diary of PA and food [20,[28][29][30][31][32][33][44][45][46][47][48][49]67].…”

“…Interventions with adolescents focused on access to booklets, pamphlets, posters, banners, and exercise guides [19,20,[22][23][24][25][26][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][44][45][46][47][48][49]51,78]. Only adolescents had the opportunity to interact electronically with instructional SMS for PA practice with motivational messages about environmental changes and access to information on healthy eating habits and creation of an electronic diary of PA and food [20,[28][29][30][31][32][33][44][45][46][47][48][49]67]. Some studies have explored aspects of children's motor skills [66,76] and adolescents' postures [74,75].…”

“…Table 3 summarizes the PL investigated in the studies according to age group. The components most frequently evaluated in interventions were PA attributes [18][19][20][21][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]37,41,42,44,45,48,50,[52][53][54][56][57][58][59][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72]75,76] (30 studies; 71.4%). In general, children were evaluated in terms of fine and global motor skills, balance, body schema, and spatial and temporal organization [50,56,76,80].…”

“…Muscle and cardiorespiratory endurance have been investigated more in adolescents [23][24][25][26]44,45,48,[52][53][54][70][71][72] than in children [27,57,66]. Flexibility, physical and cardiorespiratory fitness, agility, BMI, weight, and height were variables assessed in both age groups [18][19][20][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]41,42,62,[64][65][66][67]69,72]. Most studies evaluated PL components and reported that the intervention had an effect on them [20,21,27,41,42,50,53,54,[56][57]…”

“…Flexibility, physical and cardiorespiratory fitness, agility, BMI, weight, and height were variables assessed in both age groups [18][19][20][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]41,42,62,[64][65][66][67]69,72]. Most studies evaluated PL components and reported that the intervention had an effect on them [20,21,27,41,42,50,53,54,[56][57][58][59][61][62][63][64][65][66][69][70][71][72]75,76] (Table 3). Of the 42 studies, 19 evaluated PA behavior, with more studies involving adolescents [18,...…”