Clinical trial NCT02399436: Appalachians Together Restoring the Eating Environment
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Dietary Habits
Keywords: Community-Based Participatory Research
Community-Institutional Relations
Lead sponsor: University of Kentucky
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Community Farm Alliance
First posted: 2015-03-26
Enrollment: 720
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: Most of the nation's serious chronic health challenges and causes of death, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and obesity, are directly linked to sub-optimal diet. Both poor diets and associated disease are disproportionately common in the Appalachian counties of eastern Kentucky, a region with stark health inequities, including elevated rates of obesity, overweight, and premature mortality. The purpose of this pilot study is to evaluate a multi-component intervention developed through community-based participatory research methods for improving access to healthy foods and enhancing dietary intake in eastern Kentucky. The intervention components evaluated in this study consist of a social marketing campaign delivered to middle and high schools to promote healthy snacking and water consumption, and a series of group cooking classes for adults.

Detailed description: This pilot study evaluates two principal components of a community-based intervention to improve dietary habits and access to healthy foods: a school-based healthy snacking campaign and a series of community cooking classes for adults. The primary outcome assessed within each intervention component is dietary intake as measured by self-reported beverage and food consumption in pre-post surveys. Secondary outcome variables include attitudes, preferences, confidence, self-efficacy and other psychosocial variables related to healthy eating behaviors, perceptions of healthy food availability, food purchasing and preparation habits, and perceived barriers to healthy eating.

The school-based intervention component employs a nonequivalent control group research design. A subset of middle- and high-schools within a single county in eastern KY will receive a healthy snacking campaign intervention, and students from randomly selected classrooms within these schools will be invited to enroll in the study. Students from middle- and high-school classrooms in a comparison county that receives no intervention will serve as nonequivalent controls. The investigators specific aims for this component are to improve the availability of healthy snack foods that students may purchase at school, increase student consumption of healthy snacks over unhealthy snacks, and increase the consumption of water over sugar-sweetened beverages. Following baseline, posttest surveys will be administered at 3, 6 and 14 months.

Community cooking classes will be delivered to a non-random sample of adults who will complete pretest-posttest measures at baseline and 8 weeks. The specific aims of this component are to increase the consumption of healthy foods at home, and increase participant knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy around healthy home cooking.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* For School-Based Component: 6th-12th grade students enrolled in a participating school and classroom in the intervention or comparison county.
* For Cooking Classes: Adults aged 18 years and older residing in intervention county who have at least one juvenile in household.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in Beverage Consumption (Students)
timeFrame: Baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 14 months
measure: Change in Snack Consumption (Students)
timeFrame: Baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 14 months
measure: Change in Dietary intake (Adults)
timeFrame: Baseline to 8 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change in Snacking Attitudes and Preferences (Students)
timeFrame: Baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 14 months
measure: Change in Healthy Snacking Confidence and Self-efficacy (Students)
timeFrame: Baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 14 months
measure: Change in Availability of Healthy Snack Foods (Students)
timeFrame: Baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 14 months
measure: Change in Snack Food Purchasing Habits (Students)
timeFrame: Baseline, 3 months, 6 months, and 14 months
measure: Change in Food Preparation Habits (Adults)
timeFrame: Baseline to 8 weeks
measure: Change in Food Purchasing Habits (Adults)
timeFrame: Baseline to 8 weeks
measure: Change in Perceptions of Availability of Healthy Foods (Adults)
timeFrame: Baseline to 8 weeks
measure: Change in Barriers to Healthy Eating (Adults)
timeFrame: Baseline to 8 weeks
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Lexington
country: United States
facility: University of Kentucky
state: Kentucky
Study officials:
References: