Perceptions and Impact of a Youth-led Childhood Obesity Prevention Intervention among Youth-leaders

ABSTRACT

Objective: To evaluate the impact of a youth-led nutrition intervention on youth-leaders themselves

Design: Mixed methods, including: in-depth interviews and a quasi-experimental quantitative study comparing youth-leaders and nonparticipant comparison youth

Analysis: Qualitative analysis using direct content analysis. Difference-in-differences analyses assessing quantitative program impact.

Results: Youth-leaders perceived that the intervention impacted themselves, the youth-participants, and their respective social networks. Youth-leaders experienced greater increases in intentions to eat healthfully (p = .04), and greater decreases in support for healthy eating from their friends (p = .01), than the comparison group.

Conclusions/Implications: Youth-leaders reported multiple levels of intervention impact, and increased intentions for healthy eating; however, additional research is needed to enhance impact on behavioral outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth-led
• peer-led
• obesity
• adolescent
• nutrition
• african-american
• mentoring
• mixed-methods

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge to additional members of the B’More Healthy Communities for Kids (BHCK) research team who contributed to this work, as well as the youth-leaders who participated in the BHCK intervention.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

The project described was primarily supported by Grant Number U54HD070725 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD). The project is co-funded by the NICHD and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR). Additional funding for the youth-leader intervention was obtained from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Champions for Healthy Kids, PepsiCo New Lifestyles Innovation Grants and NE- Regional Nutrition Education Center of Excellence. The funders had no role in the design, writing, or analysis of this article. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NICHD or OBSSR.