Parent intervention to promote vegetable consumption by head start children

Graduation date: 2004The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of parent education on\ud increasing parental awareness of vegetable servings needed by preschool children,\ud lowering barriers to increase vegetable consumption in their children's diets, increasing\ud confidence in their ability to increase vegetables in their children's meals, and promoting\ud parent-child interaction to increase vegetable consumption by preschool children.\ud The study was conducted with parents enrolled in the Kid-co Head Start program\ud in Albany and Corvallis. The study protocol consisted of an experimental (n=10 parents)\ud and control (n=4 parents) group. Parents in the experimental group attended a family\ud night event about vegetables on February 13th of 2003. This event was followed by an in-school\ud activity and a delivery of reinforcement material about vegetables, one week after\ud family night event took place. Parents in the control group attended a family night event\ud about healthy snacking on February 13th of 2003. Parents from both groups participated\ud in a follow-up phone interview.\ud A high proportion of participants (75%) of the control group were Hispanics. In\ud the experimental group, 70% were whites and 30% were Hispanics. Levels of education\ud of participants of both groups ranged from 6 years of school up to college degrees.\ud Findings revealed vegetable availability in participants' homes. Fresh vegetable\ud availability in control and experimental group combined ranged from 2 to 7 types of\ud vegetables, before the intervention, and 2 to 5 types after the intervention. Seventy one\ud percent of participants of combined experimental and control groups had frozen\ud vegetables and 85.7% had canned vegetables (before and after the intervention). Daily\ud vegetable consumption was reported by 64.3% of the parents from both experimental and\ud control groups combined. A high proportion of parents (71.4%) from combined\ud experimental and control groups reported that their children eat vegetables every day.\ud Dinner, lunch and snacks are meals in which children eat most vegetables.\ud No significant difference was found about parents' awareness of the daily\ud recommended number of vegetable servings needed by young children between\ud experimental and control group. Similarly, no significant difference was found in\ud experimental group responses before and after the intervention. Findings before the\ud intervention indicate that 50% of participants in the experimental group didn't know the\ud recommendation needed by young children. After the intervention 10% of participants\ud responded that they didn't know the recommendation.\ud No significant difference was found about parents' confidence in their ability to\ud increase vegetables in their children's diets between control and experimental groups\ud responses (before and after the intervention). Similarly, no significant difference was\ud found in experimental group responses before and after the intervention. However, high levels of confidence were reported in both groups. Before the intervention, 75% and 50%\ud of parents in the control and experimental group respectively, reported they felt "very\ud confident." After the intervention, 75% and 40% of parents in the control and\ud experimental group respectively, reported they still felt "very confident."\ud Before the intervention most participants in both groups reported they have\ud barriers to increase the amount of vegetables in their children's diets at least sometimes.\ud The barrier "My child doesn't like vegetables" was reported by 60% of parents in the\ud experimental group and by 100% in the control group, at least sometimes. "Too much\ud time to prepare vegetables" was reported by 25% and 10% of participants in the control\ud and experimental group, respectively. Fifty percent of parents in the control group\ud indicated they have lack of preparation skills, while only 10% of parents in the\ud experimental group reported the same barrier. None of participants in the control group\ud considered "cost of vegetables" a barrier. However, 50% in the experimental group\ud reported the barrier "cost of vegetables." I can't get satisfactory vegetables" was reported\ud by 25% and by 40% of participants in the control and experimental group, respectively.\ud After the intervention, 25% and 30% of parents in the control and experimental\ud group reported that "Nothing" is consider a barrier. However, "My child doesn't like\ud vegetables" was a barrier for 50% of parents in the control group and 10% in the\ud experimental group. Not enough time and energy to cook were barriers reported by 30%\ud and 20% of participants in the experimental group only. Lack of preparation skills was\ud reported by 25% of participants in the control group and by 10% in the experimental\ud group.\ud Only 20% of parents in the experimental group tried the vegetable recipes\ud provided in the handouts. However, 90% of parents in the experimental group reported\ud they tried to give more vegetables to their child since the family event. Ninety percent of\ud parents reported preparing vegetables with their children. Letting their children choose a\ud vegetable in the store was another parent-child interaction activity practiced by 60% of\ud parents from the experimental group. All parents from the experimental group agreed that\ud our educational material helped them to interact with their children. Ninety percent of\ud parents agreed it helped to save money and 70% agreed it helped to prepare more\ud vegetables for their child. Forty percent of parents reported that their child ate more\ud vegetables after the family event