Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute

Gardening to Reduce Obesity and  Other Risk Behaviors in Delta Children

Cooperating researchers at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute are using a school gardening program designed to increase students’ school bonding (connection/association) to determine if it will increase physical activity and fruit/vegetable intake. Core curriculum developed for the study will meet the State of Arkansas frameworks for 6^th through 8^th grade science, health, and physical education. After initial pilot testing of the program in two schools (one intervention and one control school pair matched based on similarities in ethnicity, free/reduced lunch participation and prevalence of obesity), the program will be expanded statewide to 12 additional pair-matched schools to test the effectiveness of the gardening program for enhancing adherence to the Dietary Guidelines and reducing obesity and related chronic disease risk factors. Researchers anticipate that students who participate in the gardening program will be more strongly affiliated (bonded) with their school/teachers, will increase their fruit/vegetable intake and physical activity levels from the beginning to the completion of the program, and will have reduced social risk behaviors such as absenteeism.  Contact Dr. Judy Weber (weberjudithl@uams.edu) for additional information.

ACHRI Website: http://achri.archildrens.org/ Delta Garden Study Website:   http://www.arteengarden.com Principal Investigator: Barry Brady bradybarry@uams.edu Project Leader: Judith L. Weber, Lead  (weberjudithl@uams.edu) 2012 Research Personnel Included: Leanne Whiteside-Mansell Rachel Schichtl Emily English Page Moore Andrew Carberry Williams Edward Liana Hardin Kimberly Harris Cale Nicholson Ryan Norman Katherine Quinn James Robbins Kent Thompson Christopher Swearingen Wendy Ward