Childhood Obesity Study: A Pilot Study of the Effect of the Nutrition Education Program Color My Pyramid

Abstract

The need for successful nutrition interventions is critical as the prevalence of childhood obesity increases. Thus, this pilot project examines the effect of a nutrition education program, Color My Pyramid, on children's nutrition knowledge, self-care practices, activity levels, and nutrition status. Using a pretest-posttest, quasiexperimental design, 126 fourth- and fifth-grade students from experimental and control schools are compared. The intervention program incorporates an online component www.MyPyramid.gov, Orem's Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory, and consists of six classes taught over a 3-month period. Results indicated that the program increased nutrition knowledge in the control group. Furthermore, it increased activity time from pretest to posttest and decreased systolic blood pressure for children in both groups; however, there were no significant differences in BMI percentiles. The findings indicate that Color My Pyramid can be successfully employed in school settings and thus support school nursing practice.

How effective are interventions at reducing socioeconomic inequalities in obesity among children and adults? Two systematic reviews

“…studies seldom reported means and standard deviations), it was possible to conduct meta-analysis for only a small subset of interventions in this category (n = 13 targeted interventions). The fifty-two studies are therefore synthesised narratively in terms of whether they followed a universal (n = 16 44,45,57,64,[74][75][76][77]86,88,[96][97][98][100][101][102]104,105 ) or a targeted (n = 36 54,56,[58][59][60][61][62][63][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85]87,[89][90][91][92][93][94][95]99,103,106 ) approach. The results are also summarised in Table 41 (universal-approach studies) and …”

“…Sixteen 44,45,57,64,[74][75][76][77]86,88,[96][97][98][100][101][102]104,105 followed a universal approach and either included subgroup analysis of different SES groups or explored associations between SES and intervention outcomes. The remaining 36 studies 55,56,[58][59][60][61][62][63][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85]87,[89][90][91][92][93][94][95]99,101,103,106 were targeted at low-SES or disadvantaged groups or areas.…”

“…The majority of the studies were from the USA (n = 31); [55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][70][71]76,[80][81][82][83][84][85]90,[93][94][95][96][97]99,[101][102][103][104][105][106] in addition, four were conducted in Germany, 44,45,72,100 three in Chile [65][66][67] and two in each of Australia, 69,78 Brazil,79,87 France 64,86 and Denmark 72,88 (the study reported by Nemer et al 72 was conducted in both Germany and Denmark). Of the remaining studies there was one each from Israel, 73 the Netherlands, 63 Peru, 89 Sweden, 68 New Zealand, 77 Finland 98 and the UK.…”

“…91,92 Five studies were published in foreign-language journals, 45,65,66,74,87 although two of the studies also had results published in English-language journals. 44,75 Most of the studies (n = 42 44,45,[55][56][57][58][59][61][62][63][65][66][67]70,72,[74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][90][91][92][93][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103]105,106 ) were conducted among primary school-age children (aged 6-12 years), 10 studies 61,[64][65][66]…”

“…NIHR Journals Library www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk Thirteen 55,56,60,61,65,66,70,72,82,85,91,92,99,101 observational studies followed a targeted approach, with 11 55,56,60,65,66,70,72,82,85,99,101 investigating interventions targeting diet and physical activity behaviours and two investigating interventions that targeted physical activity behaviour ( Table 9). …”