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INVESTIGATOR: Mullis, R. M.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
110 RIVERBEND ROAD
ATHENS, GEORGIA 30602

BRINGING IT HOME: CREATING HEALTHY GENERATIONS IN LOW INCOME AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILIES

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: This project addresses the unique needs of low-income African American families at high risk for chronic disease and obesity. The intent of this project is to provide a culturally-appropriate dietary intervention for African American children and their families who are at high risk for chronic disease and obesity.

OBJECTIVES: 1. To provide children with an exciting health education program that will enhance their skills in making healthy food choices and increase their reading, mathematical, and technological skills. 2. To provide school-to-home education materials that will engage community partners and build family-to-family relationships. 3. To offer parents personalized information about healthy foods related to their own family needs. 4. To encourage children to talk with their parents about healthy food choices. 5. To offer programs at schools for parents about healthy foods for themselves and their families. 6. To evaluate the programs impact by measuring parent and child attitudes toward the program and their reported changes in food selection. 7. To work together with Atlanta Public Schools to improve teaching and learning environment through involving families and enhancing family success. 8. To develop a program for children and their parents that motivates and educates them about healthy foods. 9. To develop, in collaboration with Atlanta Public Schools, classroom extenders that match Atlanta Public School objectives.

APPROACH: Healthy families mean healthy futures. Healthy children are better students. Families need to be involved in their child's education. Encouraging children and families to work together to adopt healthy lifestyles early on and educating parents so that these good habits are reinforced is key to school performance and to reducing their risk of developing chronic diseases as adults. Increased involvement of parents and families often is cited as one of the most important ways to improve public schools. Parent involvement makes an enormous empact on students' attitude, attendance, academic achievement and health. Finding innovative ways to work with schools that do not rely heavily on classroom time and fully involve parents to promote the health of children remains a priority. Bringing it Home: Healthy Generations represents a proven innovative school-linked strategy for children and families to work together to better their health and increase their involvement in school. The goal of this project is to develop a behavioral-based model nutrition intervention program which will increase fruit, juice and vegetable (FJV) and low fat food consumption among low income African American children using a multi-component intervention that emphasizes behavior change in the home. This project will provide significant assistance in the implementation of nutrition education programs by extension agents with this at risk population.

PROGRESS: 2001/09 TO 2005/12
Project curriculum notebooks were delivered to all participating Atlanta Public Schools. We are transferring the project videos to DVD's in order to support and sustain health promotion efforts conducted by the schools. We are continuing to analyze the data with the assistance of the UGA Survey Research Center. We are submitting articles for publication and will continue to update USDA on the publication process. In long-term outcomes, we expect that the school environment will continue to value and promote healthy nutrition and physical activity behaviors among present and future students. We expect that parents and children will have decreased risks of developing obesity and chronic diseases. We will continue to update USDA on the data analysis of this project.

IMPACT: 2001/09 TO 2005/12
We expect that parents and children will increase consumption of fruits, vegetables, and low-fat foods, decrease consumption of high-fat and high-sugar foods, and increase their physical activity.

PUBLICATIONS (not previously reported): 2001/09 TO 2005/12
1. Under Review: Marsha Davis,PhD, Tom Baranowski,PhD, Marilyn Huges,PhD, Carla Warneke, MS, Carl deMoor,PhD, Janice Baranowski,MPH, RD, LD, Karen Cullen,PhD, Rebecca Mullis,PhD, 2006 Using Children as Change Agents to Increase Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Among Lower-Income African American Parents: Outcome Results of The Bringing it Home Program, 2006.
2. Under Review: Journal of the American Dietetic Association Kimberly G. Lane, PhD, Rebecca M. Mullis, PhD, Patrick Horan, PhD, 2006. The Reliability and Validity Testing of a Web-based Food Frequency Questionnaire among African-American Pre-Adolescents, 2006