Assessing health impacts of home food gardens with Wind River Indian Reservation families: protocol for a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

IntroductionThis community-based participatory research,Growing Resilience,will be the first full-scale randomised controlled trial we have identified that is designed to evaluate impacts of home gardening on family health. It is based on observational studies suggesting home food gardening has myriad health benefits, Wind River Indian Reservation (WRIR) families’ interest in home gardening and the need to end Native American health disparities with empowering, appropriate and effective health interventions.Methods and analysisA total of 100 Native American families in WRIR who have not gardened recently but want to garden will be randomly allocated (1:1) to intervention (receiving 2 years of support designing, installing and maintaining a home food garden of at least 80 square feet (approximately 7 square meters) or to delayed-intervention control (receiving same gardening support after 2 years of data collection). Willing family members aged 5 and up will participate in data collection each February and August for 2 years, with blood, biometric and survey measures at each. The primary outcome is adult body mass index (BMI). Secondary outcomes include child BMI, and adult hand strength, self-reported physical and mental health, diabetes control and food security. Primary analysis will be intention to treat (ITT), using univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics followed by a mixed model to estimate the ITT effect of the intervention using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) estimation. We will also examine treatment affects using a gardening fidelity measure, combined adult and child BMI outcomes using a lambda mu and sigma (LMS) Z-score reference data set and possible mechanisms of health impacts.Ethics and disseminationThis protocol was approved by the University of Wyoming Institutional Review Board (IRB) and the project’s Community Advisory Board. De-identified data will be shared with each tribe, and results will be published in peer-reviewed journals, summarised for distribution in WRIR, and shared at a national event to be hosted in WRIR in 2020.Trial registration numberNCT02672748; Pre-results.

Growing Healthy Hearts: Gardening Program Feasibility in a Hospital-Based Community Garden

“…This study adds to the growing body of literature demonstrating the potential impact of gardening on health 6,21,22 and provides additional support for the prospective trials that are currently underway in both home-based and community garden settings. 23,24 Although this was a small pilot study, encouraging improvements in CVD-related health behaviors were found, such as dietary intake of fruits and vegetables, dietary fiber, and daily physical activity -results that are broadly consistent with the previous studies 5,21,22 The present study was delivered in a community garden located on the campus of an academic medical center. This kind of partnership is part of a growing trend on hospital campuses, possibly because it provides a tangible endorsement of the connection between diet and health.…”

Adult Health Status Among Native American Families Participating in the Growing Resilience Home Garden Study

“…The survey included demographic questions, and heads of households were administered the US Department of Agriculture household food security 6-question module (adapted to report on previous month) (4). Study protocol details are available elsewhere (5). The Growing Resilience study was approved by the University of Wyoming institutional review board.…”

Growing Intergenerational Resilience for Indigenous Food Sovereignty through Home Gardening

“…Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho people in the WRR experience enormous health disparities, including obesity, diabetes, and dying up to 30 years earlier on average than White people in Wyoming Williams, 2012). Growing Resilience aims to reduce those disparities, support local food sovereignty leadership, and evaluate health impacts of home gardens using a randomized controlled trial design (Growing Resilience, n.d.; Porter, Wechsler, Naschold, Hime, & Fox, 2019).…”