| Prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents is a serious health concern today. School-based obesity prevention programs are limited in both quantity and quality. Even when programs have been successful in efficacy studies, few have described dissemination efforts, and few have investigated student outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an obesity prevention middle school curriculum, Choice, Control & Change (C3) shown to be efficacious under research conditions.The current study answered the following questions: What are the curriculum effects on students' behaviors, psychosocial variables, and knowledge? What are the food-related behavior goals selected by students, and their self-perceived amount of behavior change? How are these behavioral goals and perceived amount of change associated with demographics and contextual factors? What is the role of the lead teachers in facilitating curriculum implementation? How do study outcomes of the current study differ from the original study?The study used a pre-test post-test intervention and control condition design with 750 students in a middle school in Michigan where students served as their own controls. A survey was administered to students 3 times to assess the primary behavior outcomes (processed packaged snacks, sweet drinks, fast food, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors), the secondary psychosocial variable outcomes (self-efficacy, outcome expectations, autonomy, competence), as well as science and nutrition knowledge outcomes.Three of the targeted behaviors (sweet drinks consumption, TV/movies viewing, and computer/video games playing), and two psychosocial variables (self-efficacy for packaged snack consumption and physical outcome expectations) showed significant changes. Science and nutrition knowledge, however, did not improve at the end of the study. Among students' contextual factors current weight control behavior had a strong association with self-perceived amount of behavior change.The impacts of the current study on students were similar in trends as the original study, even though they were not as strong, suggesting that a lead teacher model may be a useful strategy for future dissemination of the curriculum. |
