scholarly journals Feasibility and Acceptability of a Culturally Tailored Website to Increase Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Physical Activity Levels in African American Mother-Child Dyads: Observational Study

10.2196/12501 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. e12501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicia Chung ◽  
Barbara Wallace ◽  
Monica Stanton-Koko ◽  
Azizi Seixas ◽  
Girardin Jean-Louis
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
African American ◽  
Observational Study ◽  
Vegetable Intake ◽  
Fruit And Vegetable Intake ◽  
Activity Levels ◽  
Fruit And Vegetable ◽  
Culturally Tailored ◽  
Physical Activity Levels

scholarly journals Feasibility and Acceptability of a Culturally Tailored Website to Increase Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Physical Activity Levels in African American Mother-Child Dyads: Observational Study (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicia Chung ◽  
Barbara Wallace ◽  
Monica Stanton-Koko ◽  
Azizi Seixas ◽  
Girardin Jean-Louis
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
African American ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Readiness To Change ◽  
Activity Levels ◽  
Fruit And Vegetable ◽  
Meal Preparation ◽  
Culturally Tailored ◽  
Physical Activity Levels ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND African American youth (aged 8-14 years) do not adhere to national dietary and physical activity guidelines. Nonadherence to these recommendations contributes to disproportionate rates of obesity compared with their white counterparts. Culturally tailored electronic health (eHealth) solutions are needed to communicate nutrition and physical activity messages that resonate with this target population. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to identify the impact of exposure to a website hosting culturally tailored cartoons to inspire fruit and vegetable uptake and physical activity levels in African American mother-child dyads. METHODS Statistical analysis included paired sample t tests to evaluate knowledge gains, self-efficacy, and readiness to change. Adapted items from Prochaska’s Stages of Change toward the following 4 behaviors were assessed with pre- and posttest surveys: (1) fruit and vegetable selection on my plate, (2) meal preparation, (3) fruit and vegetable selection outside of home, and (4) physical activity. Open-ended comments on videos from mother-child dyads were used to determine user acceptance. Observations of repeated responses during content analysis informed coding and development of key themes. RESULTS A final sample size of 93 mother-child dyads completed the study. Mothers reported significant improvement from precontemplation or contemplation stages to preparation or action stages for (1) fruit and vegetable selection on her plate (P=.03), (2) meal preparation for her family (P=.01), (3) fruit and vegetable selection outside the home (P<.001), and (4) physical activity (P<.001). Significant improvements were found in knowledge, stage of change, and self-efficacy for the 4 target behaviors of interest (P<.001). Children’s open-ended commentary reported vicarious learning and positive character identification with brown-skinned cartoons exhibiting healthful food and exercise behaviors. Mothers commented on the lack of accessible produce in their neighborhoods not depicted in the cartoon videos. CONCLUSIONS Culturally adapted cartoons that incorporate tailored preferences by African American families, such as race or demography, may help increase adherence to target health behaviors when developing eHealth behavior solutions.

scholarly journals Rams Have Heart, a Mobile App Tracking Activity and Fruit and Vegetable Consumption to Support the Cardiovascular Health of College Students: Development and Usability Study (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle C Krzyzanowski ◽  
Paul N Kizakevich ◽  
Vanessa Duren-Winfield ◽  
Randall Eckhoff ◽  
Joel Hampton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Query Language ◽  
Vegetable Intake ◽  
Vegetable Consumption ◽  
User Participation ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Fruit And Vegetable Consumption ◽  
Fruit And Vegetable Intake ◽  
Black College ◽  
Fruit And Vegetable

BACKGROUND With the increasing use of mobile devices to access the internet and as the main computing system of apps, there is a growing market for mobile health apps to provide self-care advice. Their effectiveness with regard to diet and fitness tracking, for example, needs to be examined. The majority of American adults fail to meet daily recommendations for healthy behavior. Testing user engagement with an app in a controlled environment can provide insight into what is effective and not effective in an app focused on improving diet and exercise. OBJECTIVE We developed Rams Have Heart, a mobile app, to support a cardiovascular disease (CVD) intervention course. The app tracks healthy behaviors, including fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity, throughout the day. This paper aimed to present its functionality and evaluated adherence among the African American college student population. METHODS We developed the app using the Personal Health Informatics and Intervention Toolkit, a software framework. Rams Have Heart integrates self-reported health screening with health education, diary tracking, and user feedback modules to acquire data and assess progress. The parent study, conducted at a historically black college and university-designated institution in southeastern United States, consisted of a semester-long intervention administered as an academic course in the fall, for 3 consecutive years. Changes were made after the cohort 1 pilot study, so results only include cohorts 2 and 3, comprising a total of 115 students (n=55 intervention participants and n=54 control participants) aged from 17 to 24 years. Data collected over the study period were transferred using the secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure protocol and stored in a secure Structured Query Language server database accessible only to authorized persons. SAS software was used to analyze the overall app usage and the specific results collected. RESULTS Of the 55 students in the intervention group, 27 (49%) students in cohort 2 and 25 (45%) in cohort 3 used the Rams Have Heart app at least once. Over the course of the fall semester, app participation dropped off gradually until exam week when most students no longer participated. The average fruit and vegetable intake increased slightly, and activity levels decreased over the study period. CONCLUSIONS Rams Have Heart was developed to allow daily tracking of fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity to support a CVD risk intervention for a student demographic susceptible to obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. We conducted an analysis of app usage, function, and user results. Although a mobile app provides privacy and flexibility for user participation in a research study, Rams Have Heart did not improve compliance or user outcomes. Health-oriented research studies relying on apps in support of user goals need further evaluation.

The impact of diet and lifestyle on wellbeing during COVID-19-lockdown

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Muth ◽  
Annabel B Losecaat Vermeer ◽  
Damiano Terenzi ◽  
Soyoung Q Park
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Physical Activity ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Vegetable Intake ◽  
Lifestyle Factors ◽  
Activity Level ◽  
Fruit And Vegetable Intake ◽  
Fruit And Vegetable ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Diet And Lifestyle

A healthy diet and lifestyle may protect against adverse mental health outcomes, which is especially crucial during stressful times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This preregistered longitudinal online study explored whether diet and lifestyle (physical activity, sleep, and social interactions) could predict wellbeing and mood during a light lockdown in Germany. Participants (N = 117, 72 males; 28 9 years old) answered mental health and lifestyle questionnaires (social connections, sleep, activity) followed by submitting one week of food and mood-lifestyle diary (food intake, positive and negative mood, mental wellbeing, sleep quality, physical activity level, quantity and quality of social interactions) via a smartphone app. We used multivariate linear and mixed-effects models to predict mood and wellbeing by using dietary components and lifestyle factors. Inter-individual analyses revealed that sleep and social interaction significantly impacted mood and wellbeing. Interestingly, fruit and vegetable intake predicted wellbeing, even when controlling for all lifestyle factors. Fruit and vegetable intake also significantly predicted daily fluctuations in wellbeing within individuals next to sleep, physical activity, and social interactions. We observed gender differences in fruit and vegetable intake and anxiety levels. Our results emphasize the importance of diet contributing to individual wellbeing, even in the challenging times of a pandemic.

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