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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #242358
Title: Louisiana (LA) health: design and methods for a childhood obesity prevention program in rural schools."

Author
item WILLIAMSON, D A - Pennington Biomedical Research Center
item CHAMPAGNE, C M - Pennington Biomedical Research Center
item HARSHA, D - Pennington Biomedical Research Center
item HAN, H - Pennington Biomedical Research Center
item MARTIN, C K - Pennington Biomedical Research Center
item NEWTON, R - Pennington Biomedical Research Center
item STEWART, T M - Pennington Biomedical Research Center
item RYAN, D H - Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Submitted to: Contemporary Clinical Trials
Publication Type: Popular Publication
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/17/2008
Publication Date: 10/20/2008
Citation: Williamson, D., Champagne, C., Harsha, D., Han, H., Martin, C., Newton, R., Stewart, T., Ryan, D. 2008. Louisiana (LA) health: design and methods for a childhood obesity prevention program in rural schools." Contemporary Clinical Trials. 29(5):783-795.

Interpretive Summary: Obesity is a serious worldwide problem that is proving to have dire consequences on our nation's health. Public health officials consider the prevention of obesity, especially in children, to be one of the most important objectives for our country. This three-year prevention project, called Louisiana (LA) Health, will test whether changing the environment and behavior of rural Louisiana school children can prevent excess weight gain. The LA Health project is composed of two programs -- one modifiying the child's school nutrition environment, and the second, modifying both the child's school nutrition environment and the child's health behavior using classroom instruction and internet counseling.

Technical Abstract: There is a worldwide epidemic of obesity with far-reaching consequences for the health of our nation. Prevention of obesity, especially in children, has been deemed by public health policy makers to be one of the most important objectives for our country. This prevention project, called Louisiana (LA) Health, will test whether modification of environmental and behavioral factors can prevent inappropriate weight gain in children from rural parishes of Louisiana who are enrolled in the fourth to sixth grades during Year 1. The primary aim of the LA Health project is to test the efficacy of two school-based approaches for obesity prevention: primary prevention alone, and a combination of primary and secondary prevention, which will be compared to a no-intervention control group using a cluster randomization research design with 17 school clusters randomly assigned to the three treatment arms. The study will span 3 years and will provide critical tests of strategies that: 1) modify the child's environment as a primary prevention strategy, and 2) provide health behavior modification via classroom instruction and internet counseling as a secondary prevention strategy. The study will also recruit a similar sample of students to measure changes in body weight relative to height, gender, and age over the same three-year period.