Eating Veggies Is Fun! An Implementation Pilot Study in Partnership With a YMCA in South Los Angeles

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Prev Chronic Dis
• Personal Author:
  Maxwell, Annette E. ; Castillo, Laura ; Arce, Anthony A. ; De Anda, Teresa ; Martins, David ; McCarthy, William J.
• Description:
  Purpose and Objectives ; Children eat less than recommended amounts of vegetables. Repeated taste exposure can increase children’s acceptance of initially disliked vegetables. However, implementation of this strategy is lacking. We conducted a pilot study to assess the feasibility of implementing an evidence-based intervention to promote liking of initially disliked vegetables among children enrolled in a YMCA summer camp. ; Intervention Approach ; We adapted a research-tested intervention to promote child liking of vegetables for implementation in small groups. In summer 2015, 50 children aged 7 to 12 years were invited to taste 5 initially disliked vegetables daily for 10 days. ; Evaluation Methods ; Children rated how much they liked vegetables on a 5-point emoji-like faces Likert scale at baseline and 2- and 4-week follow-up. The mean ratings for liked and initially disliked vegetables were estimated over time using mixed effects modeling. ; Results ; We achieved excellent participation of parents and children; however, we experienced nonstudy-related attrition caused by disenrollment of some children from the weekly camp program. The average liking increased over time (linear trend, P = .003) for the 5 targeted vegetables but not for the other nontargeted vegetables, as predicted. ; Implications for Public Health ; This pilot study suggests that repeated vegetable tasting opportunities offered by community programs may be a practical strategy for introducing low-income, young children to new or initially disliked vegetables. The study demonstrates the feasibility of implementing a health promotion strategy that has the potential to improve population health in a community setting in an underresourced neighborhood.
• Subjects:
  • Implementation Evaluation
  • Child
  • Child Behavior
  • Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
  • Feeding Behavior
  • Female
  • Food Preferences
  • Health Promotion
  • Humans
  • Male
  More +
• Source:
  Prev Chronic Dis. 15
• Pubmed ID:
  30388069
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC6219845
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  P50 HL105188/HL/NHLBI NIH HHS/United States ; R25 CA078583/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; U54 CA143931/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States ; U54 MD007598/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  Los Angeles, CA
• Volume:
  15
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/60934/cdc_60934_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 375.49 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Preventing Chronic Disease
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6467bc2dec5d7b042445b4979ad366e2f9f4e900705d95f6ef713361a819dee9bbdc9ef86ea27c044f99a657d9a1b793d55a63c712cbe42a5396bbc42b50eaec