Promoting healthful diets and exercise: Efficacy of a 12-week after-school program in urban African Americans

Abstract

This study examined the effectiveness of a unique extracurricular after-school initiative designed to promote healthy diets and exercise in urban African Americans. The Students and Parents Actively Involved in Being Fit after-school program was offered for 12 weeks to students and their parents/guardians at an urban middle school. Specific aims of the intervention were to increase participants' vegetable and fruit intake by using established 5 A Day for Better Health educational resource materials/activities and to affect their health-related fitness through dance, games, and fitness activities. Fifty-six children and 25 parents/guardians completed a standard battery of evaluations before and after the program. Pre-post pairwise t test revealed that both children and their parents/guardians showed an increase in fruit consumption and a reduction in diastolic blood pressure (P <.05). Moreover, children showed improvements in systolic blood pressure and fruit juice, salad, and nonfried potato consumption while parents/guardians showed a decrease in body fat, body mass index, and endurance walk/run time (P <.05). Overall, findings indicate that children tended to gain more diet-related benefits while parents/guardians tended to derive more fitness-related benefits. After-school programs like the Students and Parents Actively Involved in Being Fit initiative can potentially contribute to improved health levels in urban African Americans.

Cultural Relevance of Physical Activity Intervention Research with Underrepresented Populations

“…For example, walking may not be an acceptable form of exercise in the Latino community because it is viewed as indicative of low socioeconomic status [85]. A number of interventions in the project sample incorporated culturally specific forms of PA [19, 23, 49, 53, 65, 66, 68, 70, 71, 77, 80, 91]. One dance intervention integrated physical, mental, and spiritual health as common in the underrepresented group [70].…”

New Perspectives on Health Disparities and Obesity Interventions in Youth

“…An ecological framework was used in a recent study that investigated the impact of an after-school program in African American children and their parents/guardians promoting healthy diet and physical activity changes (Engels, Gretebeck, Gretebeck, & Jimenez, 2005). Program components were culturally targeted and included culturally relevant dance, sport games, fitness activities, nutrition activities, handouts on nutrition and fitness, step-counters, and a display board within the school.…”

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

“…Over a 10-year period (1998-2007), of 10 peer-reviewed studies evaluating dietary behavioral change in out-of-school programs in the United States, 9 evaluated short-term change (6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15). Only one evaluated intake 4 months post-intervention, demonstrating possible lasting impact (10).…”