School-Based Behavioral Assessment Tools Are Reliable and Valid for Measurement of Fruit and Vegetable Intake, Physical Activity, and Television Viewing in Young Children

Abstract Objectives The objective of this study was to assess the reliability and construct validity of the SNAP-Ed Youth Behavior Survey (YBS). Methods SNAP-Ed is a USDA program responsible for administering nutrition and physical activity education to SNAP-eligible children. The SNAP-Ed YBS is a 12-item program evaluation questionnaire pertaining to child food and physical activity behaviors and knowledge. There are 7 behavior questions (2 relate specifically to fruit and vegetable intake; scalar) and 5 knowledge questions (binomial). A demographic survey and the YBS was administered to 58 children attending a USDA Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) site where SNAP-Ed programming was occurring. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's Alpha test for internal consistency. Skin carotenoid level was selected as the gold standard for assessing construct validity. Resonance Raman Spectroscopy (RRS) intensity was used to determine skin carotenoid levels. Construct validity was determined by comparing YBS fruit and vegetable behavior scores with skin carotenoid levels via Pearson Correlation coefficients. Results Mean age of participants was 8.43 ± 0.25 years, 92.86% were white, and mean RRS intensity was 26,717 counts. Alpha coefficients for internal consistency for behavior and knowledge questions were 0.66 and 0.20, respectively. There was an inverse relationship between fruit and vegetable responses and RRS intensity counts. Conclusions Results from this pilot demonstrate that the YBS is a reliable tool for assessing child behaviors, but not knowledge; validity of the fruit and vegetable intake questions was not observed. Future research should be conducted to confirm findings from this study to assure use of reliable and valid assessment tools in SNAP-Ed. Funding Sources USDA SNAP-Ed.

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Rams Have Heart, a Mobile App Tracking Activity and Fruit and Vegetable Consumption to Support the Cardiovascular Health of College Students: Development and Usability Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.15156 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Michelle C Krzyzanowski ◽

Paul N Kizakevich ◽

Vanessa Duren-Winfield ◽

Randall Eckhoff ◽

Joel Hampton ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Query Language ◽

Vegetable Intake ◽

Vegetable Consumption ◽

User Participation ◽

Mobile App ◽

Fruit And Vegetable Consumption ◽

Fruit And Vegetable Intake ◽

Black College ◽

Fruit And Vegetable

BACKGROUND With the increasing use of mobile devices to access the internet and as the main computing system of apps, there is a growing market for mobile health apps to provide self-care advice. Their effectiveness with regard to diet and fitness tracking, for example, needs to be examined. The majority of American adults fail to meet daily recommendations for healthy behavior. Testing user engagement with an app in a controlled environment can provide insight into what is effective and not effective in an app focused on improving diet and exercise. OBJECTIVE We developed Rams Have Heart, a mobile app, to support a cardiovascular disease (CVD) intervention course. The app tracks healthy behaviors, including fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity, throughout the day. This paper aimed to present its functionality and evaluated adherence among the African American college student population. METHODS We developed the app using the Personal Health Informatics and Intervention Toolkit, a software framework. Rams Have Heart integrates self-reported health screening with health education, diary tracking, and user feedback modules to acquire data and assess progress. The parent study, conducted at a historically black college and university-designated institution in southeastern United States, consisted of a semester-long intervention administered as an academic course in the fall, for 3 consecutive years. Changes were made after the cohort 1 pilot study, so results only include cohorts 2 and 3, comprising a total of 115 students (n=55 intervention participants and n=54 control participants) aged from 17 to 24 years. Data collected over the study period were transferred using the secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure protocol and stored in a secure Structured Query Language server database accessible only to authorized persons. SAS software was used to analyze the overall app usage and the specific results collected. RESULTS Of the 55 students in the intervention group, 27 (49%) students in cohort 2 and 25 (45%) in cohort 3 used the Rams Have Heart app at least once. Over the course of the fall semester, app participation dropped off gradually until exam week when most students no longer participated. The average fruit and vegetable intake increased slightly, and activity levels decreased over the study period. CONCLUSIONS Rams Have Heart was developed to allow daily tracking of fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity to support a CVD risk intervention for a student demographic susceptible to obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. We conducted an analysis of app usage, function, and user results. Although a mobile app provides privacy and flexibility for user participation in a research study, Rams Have Heart did not improve compliance or user outcomes. Health-oriented research studies relying on apps in support of user goals need further evaluation.

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Web-Based Intervention for Physical Activity and Fruit and Vegetable Intake Among Chinese University Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Journal of Medical Internet Research ◽

10.2196/jmir.7152 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 19 (4) ◽

pp. e106 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Yan Ping Duan ◽

Julian Wienert ◽

Chun Hu ◽

Gang Yan Si ◽

Sonia Lippke

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Randomized Controlled Trial ◽

University Students ◽

Vegetable Intake ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Fruit And Vegetable Intake ◽

Fruit And Vegetable ◽

Web Based ◽

Randomized Controlled ◽

Chinese University

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The impact of diet and lifestyle on wellbeing during COVID-19-lockdown

10.31234/osf.io/erta5 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Anne Muth ◽

Annabel B Losecaat Vermeer ◽

Damiano Terenzi ◽

Soyoung Q Park

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Physical Activity ◽

Social Interactions ◽

Vegetable Intake ◽

Lifestyle Factors ◽

Activity Level ◽

Fruit And Vegetable Intake ◽

Fruit And Vegetable ◽

The Impact ◽

Diet And Lifestyle

A healthy diet and lifestyle may protect against adverse mental health outcomes, which is especially crucial during stressful times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This preregistered longitudinal online study explored whether diet and lifestyle (physical activity, sleep, and social interactions) could predict wellbeing and mood during a light lockdown in Germany. Participants (N = 117, 72 males; 28 9 years old) answered mental health and lifestyle questionnaires (social connections, sleep, activity) followed by submitting one week of food and mood-lifestyle diary (food intake, positive and negative mood, mental wellbeing, sleep quality, physical activity level, quantity and quality of social interactions) via a smartphone app. We used multivariate linear and mixed-effects models to predict mood and wellbeing by using dietary components and lifestyle factors. Inter-individual analyses revealed that sleep and social interaction significantly impacted mood and wellbeing. Interestingly, fruit and vegetable intake predicted wellbeing, even when controlling for all lifestyle factors. Fruit and vegetable intake also significantly predicted daily fluctuations in wellbeing within individuals next to sleep, physical activity, and social interactions. We observed gender differences in fruit and vegetable intake and anxiety levels. Our results emphasize the importance of diet contributing to individual wellbeing, even in the challenging times of a pandemic.

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Fruit and Vegetable Intake Among Children by Level of Variety, What We Eat in America, NHANES 2013–2016

Current Developments in Nutrition ◽

10.1093/cdn/nzaa043_057 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_2) ◽

pp. 206-206 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

M Katherine Hoy ◽

John Clemens ◽

Carrie Martin ◽

Alanna Moshfegh

Keyword(s):

Young Children ◽

Dietary Intake ◽

Vegetable Intake ◽

Fruit And Vegetable Intake ◽

Fruit And Vegetable ◽

Percentage Contribution ◽

Funding Sources ◽

Very Young Children ◽

Food Patterns ◽

Side Dishes

Abstract Objectives To describe and compare fruit and vegetable intake by level of variety among children in What We Eat in America (WWEIA), NHANES. Methods One-day dietary intake data of children 2–19 years (N = 5920) in WWEIA, NHANES 2013–2016 were used. Fruit and vegetable (FV) variety was the count of foods consumed that contributed to total FV intake. To be counted, at least 0.1 cup equivalent (CE) FV of each single FV item and 0.2 CE FV from a mixed dish had to have been consumed. Each FV was counted only once; a mixed dish counted as one. The Food Patterns Equivalents Database was used to determine the CE of FV intake. Individuals were classified for variety of intake as High (H) (5 + items); Moderate (M) (3–4 items); Low (L) (1–2 items). Percentage contribution of WWEIA Food Categories to FV intake was estimated. Differences in FV intakes between variety levels were compared by t-test. Those with a count of ‘0’ (N = 466) were excluded. Results Percentage of children in each variety level was: H: 15, M: 33; L: 44; none: 8%. Mean FV intakes (CE/1000 kcal) by variety level were H: 1.9; M: 1.4; L: 0.8 (P < 0.001). Distributions of 2–5y, 6–11y and 12–19y, respectively among variety levels were: H: 18, 16, 13%; M: 40, 32, 30%; L: 37, 44, 48%; none: 6, 8, 9%. For H, M, and L levels, respectively, fruit variety counts were 2.5, 1.5, and 0.5, and vegetable variety counts were 3.5, 2, and 1 (P < 0.001). Among all 2–19y, single FV items (excl 100% juice) contributed 64% to FV intake of the H vs M (55%) and L (50%), whereas Mixed Dishes contributed 12% to intake of H vs M (15%) and L (21%). The percentages of H, M and L groups reporting intake from WWEIA Food Categories were 89, 65 and 40 for Vegetables; 86, 65, and 35 for Fruit; and 79, 79, and 77 for Mixed Dishes. Conclusions FV variety was highest for very young children and lowest among adolescents. Children with more variety of FV intake were more likely to include single FV and in higher amounts than those with less FV variety. These results support suggestions for boosting FV intake of children by encouraging their consumption at snacks and including vegetable side dishes at meals. Funding Sources ARS-USDA.

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Prevalence, clustering and sociodemographic distributions of non-communicable disease risk factors in Nepalese adolescents: secondary analysis of a nationwide school survey

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2018-028263 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. e028263 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Raja Ram Dhungana ◽

Bihungum Bista ◽

Achyut Raj Pandey ◽

Maximilian de Courten

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Risk Factors ◽

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Vegetable Intake ◽

Disease Risk ◽

Communicable Disease ◽

Fruit And Vegetable Intake ◽

Fruit And Vegetable ◽

Insufficient Physical Activity ◽

Non Communicable Disease

ObjectivesTo assess the prevalence, clustering and sociodemographic distribution of non-communicable disease (NCD) risk factors in adolescents in Nepal.DesignData originated from Global School Based Student Health Survey, Nepal conducted in 2015–2016.SettingThe study sites were the secondary schools in Nepal; 74 schools were selected based on the probability proportional to school enrolment size throughout Nepal.Participants5795 school-going children aged 13–17 years were included in the study.Primary outcomesNCD risk factors: smoking, alcohol consumption, insufficient fruit and vegetable intake, insufficient physical activity and overweight/obesity were the primary outcomes. Sociodemographic distributions of the combined and individual NCD risk factors were determined by Poisson regression analysis.ResultsFindings revealed the prevalence of smoking (6.04%; CI 4.62 to 7.88), alcohol consumption (5.29%; CI 4.03 to 6.92), insufficient fruit and vegetable intake (95.33%; CI 93.89 to 96.45), insufficiently physical activity (84.77%; CI 81.04 to 87.88) and overweight/obesity (6.66%; CI 4.65 to 9.45). One or more risk factors were present in 99.6%, ≥2 were in 83% and ≥3 were in 11.2%. Risk factors were more likely to cluster in male, 17 years of age and grade 7. Prevalence of smoking (adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR)=2.38; CI 1.6 to 3.51) and alcohol consumption (aPR=1.81; CI 1.29 to 2.53) was significantly high in male, and in 16 and 17 years of age. Prevalence of insufficient physical activity and overweight/obesity was significantly lower in higher grades.ConclusionInsufficient fruit and vegetable intake and insufficient physical activity were highly prevalent in the populations studied. Risk factors were disproportionately distributed and clustered in particular gender, age and grade. The study population requires an age and gender specific preventive public health intervention.

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