Updated Environment and Policy Assessment and Observation (EPAO) Tool

The Environment and Policy Assessment and Observation (EPAO) is a tool designed to evaluate practices, environmental attributes, and policies of early care and education settings that influence children’s nutrition, physical activity, and sedentary environments. The tool has been updated to assess all current best practices in Go NAP SACC. The EPAO has been expanded to More

Stress in Early Life and Childhood Obesity Risk

The association between stress in early life and obesity and overweight in adulthood is well established. There is also increasing evidence of a link between stress exposure in childhood (or in utero) and child and adolescent obesity. Major sources of early life stress include adverse childhood experiences (e.g., abuse), poverty, food insecurity, and poor relationships More

Mapping the Food Policy Environment in Minnesota Child Care

Child care providers are a vital part of healthy, thriving communities. Over half of children between the ages of zero and five spend significant time in non-parental child care. These early years are critical for healthy brain development and establishing the habits that last a lifetime. Laws and policies shape how we think of “quality” More

No Fat, No Sugar, No Salt…No Problem? Prevalence of “Low-Content” Nutrient Claims and Their Associations with the Nutritional Profile of Food and Beverage Purchases in the United States

Nutrient content claims, which characterize the level of a nutrient in a food (e.g., “low-sugar”), are a commonly used marketing tactic. The association between claims, the nutritional quality of products, and consumer purchases is unknown. This study examined low-content nutrient claims on more than 80 million packaged food and beverage purchases from a transaction-level database More

Studying the Novel Approach of Using Electronic Health Records From Pediatric Primary Care to Measure Children’s Consumption of Sugary Beverages

Electronic health record (EHR) screening for sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake may be a novel intervention for reducing SSB intake in children, and would result in longitudinal databases of individual-level consumption that could enhance the ability the evaluate local or regional SSB policies. This study aims to: 1) implement and evaluate the uptake of a single More

Studying the Impact of Food Reformulation on Child and Adolescent Obesity and What Motivates Manufacturers to Reformulate Foods

Improvements in the healthiness of packaged foods and beverages consumed by children and adolescents could have an impact on obesity through improved dietary intake patterns. Food manufacturers have new incentives to reformulate foods in response to changes in the Nutrition Facts label (NFL) and serving sizes scheduled to go into effect in 2018. The overall More

Strength of Obesity Prevention Interventions in Early Care and Education Settings: A Systematic Review

Given the high levels of obesity in young children, number of children in out-of-home care, and data suggesting a link between early care and education (ECE) participation and overweight/obesity, obesity prevention in ECE settings is critical. This systematic review covered obesity prevention interventions in center-based ECE settings published between 2010 and 2015. The goal was More

Assessing the Effectiveness of Oregon’s Farm-to-School Program in Providing Locally Grown, Nutritious Foods to Low-Income, Minority Students

In 2011, Oregon passed a Farm to School (F2S) bill which provided significant funding for F2S programs and explicitly prioritized F2S education grants for schools serving lower-income students. The aims of the study are to: 1) assess the effectiveness of Oregon’s F2S policy in increasing schools’ and districts’ perceived access to state funds and program More

Testing Strategies to Reduce Obesity by Increasing Access to and Demand for Affordable, Healthier Food in Retail Groceries in Rural Appalachia

To enhance access to healthier foods, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently proposed new stocking standards for stores eligible to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. It is unknown how many stores are currently in compliance with the proposed enhanced retailer standards; what support rural stores need to successfully stock and engage families More