UC Delivers
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UCCE collaboration enhances students’ nutrition education experience
Poor food selection and inactivity contribute to the increase in childhood obesity rates and risk for chronic disease. Empowering school-age children to adopt a healthy lifestyle through nutrition and fitness education can help reverse this alarming trend. Schools are an ideal place for this education, but due to academic mandates it is often difficult to motivate educators to teach nutrition and fitness lessons. Teachers need something fun and creative to entice them to incorporate nutrition into their lesson plans.
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Families team up for healthier lifestyles
Overweight is the most common health problem facing U.S. children. One contributing factor is the foods that children are eating — or not eating. The USDA reports that “approximately 70 percent of U.S. children still exceed the current dietary recommendations for total and saturated fats.” The other major contributing factor is the lack of physical exercise.
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Adult Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program (FSNEP)
The Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program (FSNEP) is the largest of the federal safety net programs and first line defenses against hunger. Unfortunately, not all who are eligible and can benefit from this program are enrolled. Additionally, even with financial assistance, many families are unable to effectively use this resource to provide healthy diets for their families. In Placer County in 1997, there were 17,812 low-income residents. Of these, 7,412 received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) assistance and 9,173 received food stamp assistance.
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Nutrition education improves academic performance
Since the 1970s, the percentage of overweight children has tripled and continues to rise. At the same time, schools are under increased pressure to show improved academic performance in subjects such as math and language arts. The California Board of Education established content standards for each grade level for most subjects and academic performance is evaluated through standardized testing. The results determine the school’s Academic Performance Index. EatFit is a curriculum designed to improve the eating and physical activity habits of 11- to 14-year-old students. The program includes nine lessons with an online assessment (www.eatfit.net) and uses guided goal setting to help students make positive behavior changes. Students apply math concepts in EatFit -- such as rate, percentage, average and mathematical reasoning -- while learning how to improve their food choices and increase physical activity. They also learn to analyze and evaluate advertisements, improving their language arts skills. Previous studies using the curriculum have demonstrated the effectiveness of EatFit in changing eating and activity habits. While EatFit and most other UC ANR nutrition education curricula are aligned with the California content standards for math and language arts, testing whether teaching a curriculum aligned with the standards actually results in increased test scores had not been done. Can the need for nutrition education and academic performance be met simultaneously?
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A Nutrition Education Program That Helps Families Make Healthful Choices
People who are most "food insecure"--those unable to use traditional means for acquiring and managing their family food supply--are at greater risk for obesity and poor health. That fact, confirmed by a recent UC study, is one reason that poor health is more common among low-income and minority populations. Obesity is not just a matter of personal health. It is a costly and deadly public health concern that affects economic productivity and state budgets as well as personal and family well-being.
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Eat Well Dine Well - A health awareness program for Latino families
Poor diet and physical inactivity can contribute to obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Latinos have 21 percent greater obesity prevalence than whites, according to researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 10 percent of Latinos have been diagnosed with diabetes, while 7 percent of whites and 8 percent of Asians suffer from the disease, according to the American Diabetes Association. Chronic diseases can result in disability and decrease the quality of life for family members.
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Increasing Use of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) by Low-Income Families
The Earned Income Tax Credit has been described as the largest and most successful federal assistance program for low-income working families. Last year, the EITC was responsible for elevating the families of 5 million children above the federal poverty line. However, many eligible families do not take advantage of this valuable income supplement for various reasons, as indicated by the findings of Rural Families Speak. Rural Families Speak is a longitudinal study assessing changes in the well-being of rural families in the wake of welfare reform and associated reductions in programs and services. In the first year of the study, only about one-third of the Latino participants who were eligible for the EITC had actually received the credit. The data indicated that lack of and/or inaccurate information were common reasons for non-receipt. Language and cultural barriers further diminished the likelihood that Latino families knew about and claimed the EITC.
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Families learn to make every dollar count
Families with lower educational levels and limited resources make more money management mistakes than wealthier and better-educated families. Providing money management information in formats that appeal to limited-resource families and in a learner’s native language are known to increase financial literacy of less-educated families. International studies have shown that computer-based money management programs are effective in helping less-educated families improve their financial knowledge and decisions.
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Helping children connect with their agricultural roots
As more and more agricultural land in Riverside County is converted into housing, children become more distant from their agricultural roots. Gardening exposes children to science and agriculture and increases the likelihood they will eat more fruits and vegetables. Inadequate daily intake of produce by youth and childhood obesity are real concerns. These issues underscore the need to support school teachers in their efforts to start, maintain and use a school garden to promote students' education and health.
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Money Talks: Program improves financial literacy of teens
Teenagers' financial illiteracy is a current and growing national family economic trend and concern in the United States. Teens have access to and spend a great deal of money each year. A survey conducted by Teenage Research Unlimited indicates that today’s teens spend $179 billion annually (2006). In addition to personal spending, many teens purchase food and other items to be used by the entire family. The concern about teen financial illiteracy is supported by a national money management test of high school seniors that revealed an average score of 48.3%, a failing grade by standard grading systems (Jump$tart Coalition, 2008). High school seniors have little knowledge of money management, savings, investments, income and spending. The vast majority of students aged 16 to 22 have never taken a class in personal finance, with two-thirds admitting that they could benefit from more lessons on money management. Alarmingly, 9% were rolling over credit card debit each month (ASEC, 1999).
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Eatfit: shaping the lives of adolescents
An entire generation of California youth faces a lifetime of obesity, due, in part, to poor dietary choices and physical inactivity. Obesity reduces an adolescent’s quality of life, and can lead to life-shortening chronic health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. Middle-school teachers asked Cooperative Extension educators for educational tools to assist students with healthier eating and becoming more physically active.
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Healthier brown bag lunches for preschool children
Packing healthy lunches for children to take to preschool can be a particular challenge to parents. Consideration must be given to selecting foods that are nutritious, easy to transport, appealing to young children and will not support the growth of food-poisoning bacteria. Since lunch typically supplies one-fourth to one-third of daily nutrient intake, a program that helps parents pack healthy lunches for their preschoolers could contribute greatly to healthier diets.
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UC creates nutrition education videos to reach diverse, low-literacy communities
Successful promotion of healthy eating behaviors and an active lifestyle is important for the health and well-being of everyone, including low-income families from diverse backgrounds. This is especially critical for minority communities, who are increasingly at risk for obesity, being overweight, and chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer due to a host of social, cultural, and environmental factors. Critical barriers to nutrition education include cultural and linguistic challenges such as the lack of culturally appropriate information and materials, diverse levels of acculturation and health literacy, and limited English proficiency. Studies show that visual materials and bilingual videos that are culturally responsive and literacy appropriate help participants acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behavior necessary for nutritional well-being. Our objectives were to develop videos and visual handouts that would enhance the effectiveness of nutrition education with diverse populations, including recent refugees and immigrants.
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African Americans and Latinos set goals for healthy lifestyles
The African-American and Latino communities are disproportionately affected by obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and stroke. Eliminating the health disparities associated with chronic diseases requires culturally appropriate and effective interventions that address the individual’s role in self-management and the community’s role in supporting self-care. Goal setting has been reported to be successful because it directs an individual’s attention toward a goal, encourages them to complete the goal, and forces them to alter their status quo to complete that goal.
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New youth evaluation tool saves teachers’ time
A valid evaluation tool is important in education programs designed to change behaviors, skills and/or self-efficacy. Most programs use a traditional prospective pre/posttest method of data collection. A pretest is given before the start of the program and a posttest using the same questions is given after the program. This method has limitations in real-world application, especially with adolescents. Establishing rapport with youth at the first educational meeting is important for learning. Test taking at the start of the program may seem intrusive and be an obstacle to establishing trust. Youth may also rate themselves differently on the posttest, after acquiring new information during the lessons that was related to the test question. For example, youth may believe they eat enough fruits and vegetables until they learn the daily recommendations. When the posttest is completed, their responses may appear that they did not change behavior. Such miscalculation may mask actual behavior and skill changes resulting from the nutrition program.