Date of Award:

5-2012

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences

Committee Chair(s)

Heidi LeBlanc

Committee

Heidi LeBlanc

Committee

Lisa Boyce

Committee

Janet Anderson

Committee

Debra Christofferson

Abstract

Utah State University in the collaboration with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) proposes to develop and implement a program to help families develop healthy eating habits and lifestyle behaviors. Recently, childhood overweight and obesity has reached epidemic proportions. The diseases associated with adult obesity are now being seen in the pediatric population; therefore, there is a call for preventative efforts. A diet high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in combination with an active lifestyle discourages the presence of obesity. Currently, most childhood obesity prevention efforts have taken place in the school setting and have only had short term success. For long term success, obesity prevention programs need to involve parents and be implemented in a wide range of settings, including the home.

The proposed program will consist of 4 parent lessons written by nutrition professionals and the lessons will be assessed to determine their effectiveness in changing family lifestyle behaviors. Parents will be able to participate in lessons via in-class group lessons or at home online. Nutrition education assistants employed through SNAP-Ed will teach the lessons. If effective, the proposed program will be capable of being repeated in various locations and shared with other Extension service programs across the nation.

The project team proposes a 2-year, $2200 project to promote healthy family lifestyle behaviors changes, which in turn will help in the prevention of childhood obesity. It was estimated that by the year 2020, Americans will spend approximately 320 billion dollars per year on obesity. The small cost of the proposed program is small in comparison to the costs associated with obesity and is capable of having a large impact.

Checksum

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Comments

This work made publicly available electronically on May 10, 2012.

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