Effectiveness of an IMB-based Intervention for Reducing Sweetened Beverages Consumption in Preschool Children

Study Summary

Sugar-sweetened beverages and over consumption of 100% fruit juice add unneeded calories to the diets of children, potentially leading to overweight. As children's diets are extensions of their parent's behaviors, the investigators propose to implement a nutrition education intervention based on the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) behavior change model using parents as the primary agent of change. This project will evaluate an intervention to reduce sugar-sweetened beverages in preschool children from low-resource families. The proposed research uses a randomized control group design involving 20 parents of 3-5-year-old children at 20 sites (n=400) over 3 years. The investigators will randomly assign sites to two experimental conditions: 1) 10-week sugar-sweetened beverage intervention and 2) 10-week sham education control. Data collection for the two groups will be conducted at baseline and 1 weeks and 6 months post intervention. Measures to be collected include and IMB survey, home beverage inventory (HBI), weekend food recall, and anthropometrics. Education programs will be available to all parents at sites through interactive display boards with 5-10-minute lessons. Each semester 8 students (n=32) will enroll in an experiential course aimed at increasing students' cultural competency. For 10 weeks, students will attend classroom training and spend 2 hours twice a week at sites implementing the nutrition education program.

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Sugar-sweetened beverage reduction education for preschool children