Extension Empowers Alabama Youth to Improve Dietary Behaviors

Abstract

The purposes were to determine the outcome and procedural efficacies of Eat Better, Move More (EBMM), an obesity prevention program, and to identify sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in the home. A convenience sample of youth attending summer programs in Alabama and their parents participated in a 6-week SNAP-Ed intervention. Youth completed health behaviors surveys. Parents completed a survey measuring health behaviors and beverage availability in the home. A process evaluation was performed to assess intervention procedures. Youth (n =144) reported significant increases in daily vegetable consumption (p = .004) and significant decreases in SSB consumption (p = .002) (p = .028). More than 50% of parents (n = 263) answered “yes” to having the following SSBs available in the home: Regular Soda Pop, Sport Drinks and Fruit Drinks. Six themes emerged from the process evaluation. During EBMM, health behaviors that contribute to obesity improved in these youth and identified SSBs available in the home helped fill knowledge gaps. The process evaluation themes identified implementation difficulties. These findings can help tailor future programming.