Promoting healthful diets and exercise: efficacy of a 12-week after-school program in urban African Americans.
This study examined the effectiveness of a unique extracurricular after-school initiative designed to promote healthy diets and exercise in urban African Americans. The Students and Parents Actively Involved in Being Fit after-school program was offered for 12 weeks to students and their parents/guardians at an urban middle school. Specific aims of the intervention were to increase participants' vegetable and fruit intake by using established 5 A Day for Better Health educational resource materials/activities and to affect their health-related fitness through dance, games, and fitness activities. Fifty-six children and 25 parents/guardians completed a standard battery of evaluations before and after the program. Pre-post pairwise t test revealed that both children and their parents/guardians showed an increase in fruit consumption and a reduction in diastolic blood pressure (P <.05). Moreover, children showed improvements in systolic blood pressure and fruit juice, salad, and nonfried potato consumption while parents/guardians showed a decrease in body fat, body mass index, and endurance walk/run time (P <.05). Overall, findings indicate that children tended to gain more diet-related benefits while parents/guardians tended to derive more fitness-related benefits. After-school programs like the Students and Parents Actively Involved in Being Fit initiative can potentially contribute to improved health levels in urban African Americans.
Engels
Hermann-J
HJ
Division of Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA. Engels@wayne.edu
Gretebeck
Randall J
RJ
Gretebeck
Kimberlee A
KA
Jiménez
Linda
L
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D053198:Child Nutrition Sciences / Q000193:education; D004032:Diet; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005638:Fruit; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012574:Schools; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013690:Television; D014505:Urban Population; D014675:Vegetables; D018910:Video Games; D015431:Weight Loss