Sequential Online Wellness Programming Is an Effective Strategy to Promote Behavior Change.
Year: 2015

The growing number of United States youth and adults categorized as overweight or obese illustrates a need for research based family wellness interventions. Sequential, online, Extension delivered family wellness interventions offer a timeand cost effective approach for both participants and Extension educators. The 6 week, online Healthy Families Challenge (HFC) resulted in increased daily fruit and vegetable servings and leisure time physical activity. These findings suggest that an Extension delivered, sequential, online family wellness program is an effective education strategy.  The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity among U.S. adults and youth is of particular concern today. Family lifestyle factors such as physical inactivity and unhealthy eating habits (e.g. energy rich, nutrient poor foods) are placing individuals at a greater risk of becoming overweight or obese. It is important that families be provided with research based information and practical lifestyle recommendations so that they can begin taking small steps towards a healthier lifestyle. Sequential educational wellness programming is one approach by which families can receive targeted, credible health information. Participation barriers for traditional, face to face family wellness programs include both time and location of the program, while enablers include family involvement and incorporation of an online component (Smith, Staker, McManus, Fenner, 2014) Given these aforementioned barriers in combination with limited budgets, cost effective family wellness intervention options are needed. Extension is well positioned to fill this void in programming. Extension delivered, sequential, online family wellness programming may be one strategy to overcome participation barriers of prospective participants as well as the budgetary constraints often experienced by Extension educators. Extensiondelivered, one time online nutrition and food safety programs have been shown to be effective at increasing awareness of recommended nutrition practices and self reported knowledge (Francis, Martin, Taylor, 2012; Francis, 2014) Similarly, Campbell, Koszewski, and Behrends (2013) reported that sequential distance education, either via mail or online, was effective at producing behavior change, improved dietary intakes and enhanced self efficacy. However, there is limited information Lindsay R. MacNab BS/MS Diet Exercise Student lmacnab@iastate.edu Sarah L. Francis Assistant Professor/Nutrition Extension Specialist slfranci@iastate.edu Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition Iowa State University Ames, Iowa about the effectiveness of Extension delivered, sequential, online only family wellness interventions in relation to behavior change. Iowa State University's Human Sciences Extension collaborates with the statewide online wellness initiative, Live Healthy Iowa (LHI) formerly Lighten Up Iowa (Litchfield, Muldoon, Welk, Hallihan, Lane, 2005) Live Healthy Iowa brings families, friends, businesses and communities together by offering low cost, team based challenges promoting healthy lifestyle changes. These challenges include: 10 Week Wellness Challenge (January April) Strut Your Pup (April May) Burst Your Thirst (June July) The Next Step (September October) Healthy Families (September November) Over 230,000 Iowans are reached through LHI via indirect, online health promotion strategies (e.g. website based tracking system, weekly email messages, etc. Traditionally, LHI challenges do not include online educational modules; instead, participants are sent weekly nutrition, physical activity, and motivational tips and were encouraged to seek wellness information on their own. Description of the Healthy Families Challenge (HFC) The HFC is a 6 week challenge for families with youth in grades K 5 that: Promotes family fruit and vegetable consumption Encourages more family physical activity participation In 2013, the HFC was revised to include six Extension developed, weekly online modules with accompanying materials (Table 1) The modules were developed using PowerPoint and voice recordings using Adobe software. Families who completed the six weekly challenges received a $5 gift card and were entered in a random drawing to win a $100 gift card to an Iowa resort. Table 1. Description of HFC Family Resources Online modules