A Community Based Approach to Deter Childhood Obesity in Title 1 Schools

ABSTRACT

Community development is an effort to build resources that increase inhabitants’ ability to improve their life quality. Obesity is a significant health risk to individuals and their communities. In 2016/2017, school screenings showed that 28.3% of first-graders, 35.4% of third-, and 14.1% of sixth-graders in a Florida Panhandle school district were overweight. Additional data revealed an increase in overweight individuals with large proportions of minorities or low-income students. To intervene, individuals from a Historically Black University respond to the structural inequality – obesity and education access to health care by offering nutritional education to ascertain the possibility of deterring childhood obesity using community-based programming. Over 870 students from Title 1 locations participated. A pretest/posttest was given, and T-test results revealed significant behavior changes. Community practitioners can offer educational programs to impact students’ health behaviors at risk of obesity.

KEYWORDS:

• Community development
• title 1
• physical activity
• nutrition
• obesity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.