title: Childhood nutrition in the Mississippi Delta: challenges and opportunities.
abstract: Childhood obesity in the USA has more than tripled in the last three decades, and the prevalence is higher in the Mississippi Delta. Insight into the social, cultural and environmental factors that influence inequity can inform efforts to mediate health disparities. Focus groups (n = 12) among parents/guardians of elementary school children (n = 44) and teachers (n = 59) in the Mississippi Delta were used to investigate barriers and facilitators of healthy eating. Transcriptions were analyzed for themes. A strong preference for junk food among children and the pervasiveness of junk foods in schools and communities were cited as barriers to healthy eating. Potential facilitators of healthy eating included desire to avoid chronic disease, effort to limit junk food consumption and school support. Despite support for efforts to improve nutrition in the Delta, participants voiced a sense of inevitability related to children's consumption of unhealthy foods. This study suggests that parents and teachers express concern related to eating habits of children, yet they experience barriers to healthy eating which contribute to a sense of disempowerment. Improving health in the Mississippi Delta requires comprehensive strategies that offer its citizens a sense of agency.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, USA virginia.gray@csulb.edu.
authors.forename: Virginia B
authors.initials: VB
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science, Nutrition, and Health Promotion, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA.
authors.forename: Sylvia H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Byrd
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science, Nutrition, and Health Promotion, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA.
authors.forename: Brent J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Fountain
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA.
authors.forename: Nicole E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Rader
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science, Nutrition, and Health Promotion, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Frugé
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008922:Mississippi; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D010290:Parents; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000070777:School Teachers / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: childhood nutrition; parental views; schools; social determinants of health