Researchers conducted a small community-based participatory research pilot of a drinking water intervention in the Navajo Nation and found that caregivers' reported knowledge of Diné (Navajo) traditions about water doubled and that the influence of Diné traditions on beverages they offered their children more than doubled. A Community Advisory Group met monthly to develop a curriculum for preschoolers and their caregivers that responded to caregiver knowledge gaps and centered Navajo language and traditions. Four monthly lessons were delivered by Early Childhood Education teachers through remote learning using multimedia materials to 21 households with children ages 2-5 enrolled in four Navajo Nation preschools. A majority (86%) of participating households had tap water at home, but only 38% stated they trusted their tap water's safety. While not statistically significant, children's average daily water consumption increased by 16% while consumption of sugary drinks decreased by 21%, with a reduction in energy intake from sugary drinks of 26 calories per day. The study was led by Brigham and Women's Hospital in partnership with Community Outreach and Patient Empowerment (COPE) of Navajo Nation and the Nutrition Policy Institute, University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources. The study was funded by Healthy Eating Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (grant no. 77234). To learn more, read the research brief, “Water is K'é: A Community-Based Intervention to Increase Healthy Beverage Consumption by Navajo Preschool Children.”
- Author: Danielle L. Lee
- Editor: Ron Strochlic
The annual CalFresh Forum, hosted by Nourish California in partnership with the California Department of Social Services, brings together key stakeholders from across California to acknowledge outstanding work, identify opportunities, and discuss strategies to improve the reach and impact of CalFresh. Nutrition Policy Institute researchers Wendi Gosliner, Celeste Felix and Ron Strochlic will have a virtual booth at the Forum to highlight the successful CalFresh Text Messaging pilot project. From September 2020 to March 2021, over 172,000 San Diego CalFresh participants received text messages in English or Spanish from CDSS including a link directing recipients to a website with information on selecting, storing and preparing California-grown fruits and vegetables; health benefits; tips to reduce food waste; and recipes – including TikTok videos. The project was made possible in partnership with the UC San Diego Center for Community Health and the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency, which administers CalFresh in the county. The CalFresh Forum will be hosted in-person and virtually February 15-16, 2023 at the Holiday Inn Sacramento Downtown – Arena and the Whova Virtual Platform.
New research from the University of California Nutrition Policy Institute suggests that a Harvest of the Month curriculum promoting fruit and vegetable intake, healthy beverage choices, physical activity, and the importance of local agriculture in school-aged children can improve school children's fruit and vegetable intake. Each lesson includes grade-appropriate math and English Language Arts activities addressing the California Common Core Standards. Researchers at NPI collaborated with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE) to evaluate an HOTM curriculum taught once per week for six weeks to over 140 fourth- through sixth-grade students in three schools. Students in the three schools receiving the HOTM curriculum showed greater increases in total fruit and vegetable intake, fruit intake, and 100% juice consumption, and preference for several types of fruits and vegetables compared to 210 students in one school that did not receive the curriculum. Focus group findings suggest students, parents and teachers were highly satisfied with the HOTM curriculum. These findings meet the USDA criteria for programs funded by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education, and schools are encouraged to coordinate with local and state agencies administering SNAP-Ed to integrate HOTM curriculum to expand their nutrition education and promotion efforts. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, adaptations for online curriculum delivery and the adoption of appropriate safety measures for taste-testing when in-person delivery occurs may be needed. The study, funded by the California Department of Public Health, was published in the Journal of School Health in August 2021. Authors include Ron Strochlic, Gail Woodward-Lopez, and Sridharshi Hewawitharana from NPI, Katharina Streng, Jackie Richardson, and Lauren Whetstone from CDPH, and Derek Gorshow from ACOE.
New research from the University of California Nutrition Policy Institute suggests that a 4-week Rethink your Drink curriculum for high school students can improve high school students' use of Nutrition Facts labels and decrease their consumption of diet soda. The Rethink Your Drink curriculum, developed by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), promotes drinking water and a variety of healthy beverages instead of sugar-sweetened beverages and use of the Nutrition Facts label and Ingredient List to choose beverages with little or no added sugars. The curriculum was pilot-tested in three California high schools with over 220 students and compared to 92 students in two schools that did not receive the curriculum. Despite the positive impact on Nutrition Facts label usage and decreasing consumption of diet soda, there was only a small but not significant decrease in sugar-sweetened beverage intake by students receiving the curriculum compared to those that did not. These findings suggest that developing a curriculum that is effective for improving beverage consumption among high school students may be challenging. Interviews and surveys with teachers and focus groups with students suggest the curriculum could be shortened, made more engaging with interactive activities as well as taste-tests of healthy beverages, and that the curriculum be modified to target younger students to support earlier development of healthy beverage consumption habits. Researchers suggest the effectiveness of the Rethink Your Drink curriculum could be increased if paired with evidence-based policy, systems and environmental change strategies that eliminate sugar-sweetened beverages from high-school students' environments. The study, funded by the CDPH, was published in the Health Education Journal in September 2021. Authors include Ron Strochlic, Gail Woodward-Lopez, Kaela Plank and Sridharshi Hewawitharana from NPI, and Jackie Richardson and Lauren Whetstone from CDPH.
Parents play an important role in influencing what their kids eat and drink. Harvard, Wayne State University, Stanford, and University of California researchers discovered in a new study that parents who read kids' storybooks with messaging on healthy beverages are more likely to serve their children healthier beverages–such as water–and are less likely to serve their children sugary drinks. Parents who read the storybooks are also more likely to consider sugary drinks as unhealthy beverages. The study was conducted with a diverse group of over 2000 parents with children aged six months to five years old. Parents in the study read pages from the children's book Potter the Otter: A Tale About Water, developed by FIRST 5 Santa Clara County to encourage young children to drink healthy beverages. The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Study co-authors include Anna Grummon, Dina Goodman, Meg Salvia, and Aviva Musicus from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Christina Hecht from the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Nutrition Policy Institute, Rebeccah Sokol from Wayne State University, and Anisha Patel from Stanford. The study was funded by FIRST 5 Santa Clara County. The book, which is approved for use in SNAP-Ed programming, is available for free in English and Spanish in digital format online.