1. Advancing School and Community Engagement Now for Disease Prevention (ASCEND).
- Author
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Treu JA, Doughty K, Reynolds JS, Njike VY, and Katz DL
- Subjects
- Anti-Asthmatic Agents administration & dosage, Body Mass Index, Central Nervous System Stimulants administration & dosage, Child, Diet, Educational Status, Exercise, Female, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Humans, Male, Physical Fitness, Socioeconomic Factors, Health Behavior, Health Promotion organization & administration, School Health Services organization & administration
- Abstract
Purpose: To compare two intensity levels (standard vs. enhanced) of a nutrition and physical activity intervention vs. a control (usual programs) on nutrition knowledge, body mass index, fitness, academic performance, behavior, and medication use among elementary school students., Design: Quasi-experimental with three arms., Setting: Elementary schools, students' homes, and a supermarket., Subjects: A total of 1487 third-grade students., Intervention: The standard intervention (SI) provided daily physical activity in classrooms and a program on making healthful foods, using food labels. The enhanced intervention (EI) provided these plus additional components for students and their families., Measures: Body mass index (zBMI), food label literacy, physical fitness, academic performance, behavior, and medication use for asthma or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)., Analysis: Multivariable generalized linear model and logistic regression to assess change in outcome measures., Results: Both the SI and EI groups gained less weight than the control (p < .001), but zBMI did not differ between groups (p = 1.00). There were no apparent effects on physical fitness or academic performance. Both intervention groups improved significantly but similarly in food label literacy (p = .36). Asthma medication use was reduced significantly in the SI group, and nonsignificantly (p = .10) in the EI group. Use of ADHD medication remained unchanged (p = .34)., Conclusion: The standard intervention may improve food label literacy and reduce asthma medication use in elementary school children, but an enhanced version provides no further benefit.
- Published
- 2017
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