Identification of Barriers and Facilitators of Healthy Food Choices Among Children Aged 6 to 12 Years: From the Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention Project

Abstract

This study aimed to identify barriers and facilitators of healthy food choices among children aged 6 to 12 years in Kahnawake, and help orienting Kahnawake School Diabetes Prevention Project (KSDPP) to improve the diet of the children. A series of four focus groups with a total of 15 people was conducted with mothers of children enrolled in one of the two intervention schools. Comments were analyzed verbatim by content analysis.

Results showed that cost, time, taste, season of the year, pressure from family and friends, and health concerns within the family can be both barriers and facilitators of healthy eating for the children. However, KSDPP is a facilitator.

Keywords:

• food preference
• focus-group
• children
• healthy food choices
• Native American Indian

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all, we thank all the participants of the focus group interviews as well as the CAB (Community Advisory Board) members and the community as a whole which made this project possible. It is also important to underline the strong collaboration of the research team of Kahnawake whose members in one way or another contributed to the advance of the project. Finally, we thank the CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research) for their financial support.