Effect of Hip Hop Nutrition-Math Curriculum

Columbia University

Status: Suspended

Conditions: Health Behavior

Treatments: Behavioral: Food Explorers Program; Behavioral: Hip Hop Nutrition-Math Curriculum

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT03952754

AAAR5173

5R01NR017571 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study is testing the efficacy of the integrative approach to:

1. teach 5th grade children menu board calorie literacy as measured by our novel recently validated menu board calorie literacy (MBCL) instrument;
2. provide strategies designed to improve food purchasing behaviors; and
3. facilitate the transmission of core lesson messages from children to parents via a procedure that we have termed "Child Mediated Health Communication (CMHC)".

Full description

Data show that nearly 25% of children aged four to eight years consumed fast food on a typical day. These trends in fast food consumption are more acute among low-income urban dwellers where higher rates of overweight and childhood obesity are seen. This has led to a focus on providing fast food consumers with point-of-purchase nutrition information, such as the calorie posting mandates, in the hopes that these decision cues will help consumers make better informed dietary decisions. Most children chose their own meals at the point-of-purchase. It is clear that additional strategies are needed to encourage the point-of-purchase use of calorie postings, however available studies provide little insight into best practices or the types of approaches needed.

It is with this in mind that the investigator developed a school-based approach to improve point-of purchase use of calorie postings, by creating a novel intervention that targets menu board calorie literacy as a means of improving food-purchasing behaviors.

Hip Hop Nutrition-Math Curriculum is a novel behaviorally focused multimedia, musical school health rap toolkit that targets what we refer to as menu board calorie literacy. 4th grade common core math standards are integrated into the program in a manner that incorporates evidence-based nutrition education recommendations by the Institute of Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The investigator proposes to test the efficacy of the integrative approach on food purchasing behaviors of children in an adequately powered, controlled trial. The investigator will test the intervention in the after-school setting among economically disadvantaged children and incorporate parental engagement in our outcome evaluations. There is a partnership with New York City's largest after-school program vendor, New York Edge (formerly called Sports and Arts in Schools foundation/SASF), for the implementation of this study.

The goal of a health literacy intervention is to improve health decision-making and/or behavior. For this reason, the investigator will measure both menu board calorie literacy and food choice behavior at a point-of-purchase.

Enrollment: 560 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 9 to 12 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 5th grade student participating in the New York Edge after school program

Exclusion criteria

• Absence of Internet access at home
• No working phone line
• Major psychiatric disability or medical condition that may affect participation (e.g., psychotic illness, terminal illness)
• Non-English speaking students

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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560 participants in 2 patient groups

Group 2: Hip Hop Nutrition-Math Curriculum

Experimental group

Description:

The intervention group will receive an tailored program for ten weeks, meeting twice a week.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Hip Hop Nutrition-Math Curriculum

Group 1: Food Explorers Program

Active Comparator group

Description:

The control group will receive the usual care for nutrition program provided by the schools, called Food Explorers. The group will also be conducted ten weeks, meeting twice a week.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Food Explorers Program