Impact of After-school Nutrition Workshops in a Public Library Setting

Abstract

Objective: To determine if after-school nutrition workshops conducted in public libraries were related to lasting changes in food choice. Methods: "Snack Smart" workshops, based on Social Cognitive Theory, were conducted in 8 branch libraries. Quasi-experimental design assessed changes in consumption of targeted foods by pretest, posttest and follow-up food frequency questionnaires designed by the authors, and analyzed using the Friedman test for repeated measures and Wilcoxon signed ranks. Results: In a convenience sample of 49 ethnically diverse children ages 9 to 14, intake of milk, vegetable, and water significantly increased at 3-week posttest (P < 0.05), but only water intake showed a significant change from pretest to follow-up 3 months later. Conclusions and Implications: This low intensity program did not produce lasting behavior change, as measured by changes in food frequency at 3 months post intervention. The study supports the need to critically evaluate out-of-school nutrition programs for lasting impact.

Improving children's dairy food and calcium intake: can intervention work? A systematic review of the literature

“…The present review summarises sixteen papers describing fourteen interventions published between years 1990 and 2010, conducted mainly in the USA (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41) , one in South America (42) and three in Europe (43)(44)(45) . Children's age spanned from 5 to 12 years, and with the exception of one study that recruited girl scouts only (35) , all studies targeted both girls and boys.…”

“…Outcome evaluation focused primarily on short-term effects (end of intervention) with only five articles reporting follow-up effects post-intervention (34,36,37,43,44) . The intervention techniques were delivered in schools (n 4), the community (n 3), the home (n 2) and within research organisations (n 2).…”

“…Four studies used trained intervention facilitators who had no previous nutrition qualification (e.g. librarians) (34,35,38,44) . In six studies, general nutrition education or behavioural nutrition approaches guided intervention design (30,34,35,37,38,41) .…”

“…Table 3 further describes the BCT used according to who were the primary targets. Seven studies used BCT targeted at children only (30)(31)(32)35,38,40,44) , and two studies focused on children but had a parent or family component (34,45) . Three studies used BCT predominantly targeted at the family (parent and child together) (33,41,43) , one primarily targeted parents (37) and one used BCT aimed at parents and children equally (42) .…”

Factors Influencing the Implementation of Organized Physical Activity and Fruit and Vegetable Snacks in the HOP'N After-School Obesity Prevention Program

“…Compared to going home after school and being unsupervised, after-school programs provide adult supervision to decrease children's opportunities for obesity-related behaviors, such as screen time and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and increase opportunities for healthful options. [6][7][8][9] However, most adults supervising children in after-school programs do not engage children in physical activity and healthful eating. 10 One major challenge to conducting obesity prevention research in after-school settings is to build the capacity of after-school staff to establish and maintain high-quality program implementation.…”