Research & Publications | Healthy Eating Research

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Water is K’é: A Community-Based Intervention to Increase Healthy Beverage Consumption by Navajo Preschool Children

This research brief gives an overview of the Water is K’é intervention, conducted among Navajo Nation families. The intervention was delivered by early care and education teachers to households with children ages 2-5, and covered the cultural importance of water, health benefits of water, and alternatives to sugary drinks. At baseline, more than 70% of children already More

Date: December 2022

Resource Type: Research Brief

Focus Areas: Beverages Early Childhood

Increasing Healthy Food Access for Low-Income Communities: Protocol of the Healthy Community Stores Case Study Project

Improving healthy food access in low-income communities continues to be a public health challenge. One strategy for improving healthy food access has been to introduce community food stores, with the mission of increasing healthy food access; however, no study has explored the experiences of different initiatives and models in opening and sustaining healthy food stores. More

Date: January 2022

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Food Retail Healthy Communities

A Scoping Review of the Use of Indigenous Food Sovereignty Principles for Intervention and Future Directions

Indigenous food sovereignty (IFS) represents a community-led movement with potential to reduce health inequities, but no scoping review of the impact of taking an IFS approach on intervention research has been conducted. This review sought to: 1) describe intervention studies that employ IFS principles, and 2) describe the impact of studies using IFS principles on More

Date: July 2021

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Diet Quality & Healthy Weight Healthy Communities

Impact of breastfeeding interventions among United States minority women on breastfeeding outcomes: a systematic review

In the U.S., strong ethnic/racial, socioeconomic, demographic, and geographic breastfeeding inequities persist, and African American and Hispanic women are less likely to meet their breastfeeding goals compared to White women. This systematic review was designed to answer the question: What is the impact of breastfeeding interventions targeting ethnic/racial minority women in the U.S. on improving More

Date: March 2021

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Early Childhood

Understanding the Intersection of Race/Ethnicity, Socioeconomic Status, and Geographic Location: A Scoping Review of U.S. Consumer Food Purchasing

Disparities in diet quality persist in the U.S. Examining consumer food purchasing can provide unique insight into the nutritional inequities documented by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and geographic location (i.e., urban vs. rural). There remains limited understanding of how these three factors intersect to influence consumer food purchasing. This study aimed to summarize peer-reviewed scientific More

Date: October 2020

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Food Retail Healthy Communities

Understanding Successful Healthy Stores in Low Income Communities: A Case Study Approach

The study goals and objectives are: 1) To conduct mixed methods research to construct case studies in 7 diverse healthy food-focused retail food stores located in low-income communities throughout the United States; 2) To understand experiences of these stores in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, including strengths and vulnerabilities; and 3) To conduct a More

Date: October 2020

Resource Type: Commissioned Research Project Summary

Focus Areas: Food Retail

Hydrate Philly: An Intervention to Increase Water Access and Appeal in Recreation Centers

Previous interventions to increase water access and consumption have focused on school settings, have shown mixed results on sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption, and have rarely addressed tap water safety. Our randomized controlled trial examined how improving access and appeal of water in recreation centers in low-income neighborhoods affected counts of SSBs carried by youth attending More

Date: February 2020

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Beverages

Identifying strategies to improve American Indian women’s participation in the federal Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children

This project aims to develop solutions that will increase participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program among Native American communities. Native Americans experience high rates of food insecurity and have higher mortality rates due to diet-related chronic diseases compared to other ethnicities. The WIC program has a strong More

Date: February 2020

Resource Type: Grant Summary

Focus Areas: Food Access Nutrition Policy & Programs

Expanding and evaluating a community-based intervention to increase healthy beverage consumption by Navajo preschool children

Diet-related disparities among indigenous youth are driven, in part, by excess sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and limited access to drinking water. Water is K’é targets environmental change at early childhood education (ECE) sites and community-wide systems change to promote a Diné culture of health. ECE sites will select and implement site-based and community-level changes to address More

Date: February 2020

Resource Type: Grant Summary

Focus Areas: Beverages Early Childhood

A Framework for Increasing Equity Impact in Obesity Prevention

One of the most pressing unmet challenges for preventing and controlling epidemic obesity is ensuring that socially disadvantaged populations benefit from relevant public health interventions. Obesity levels are disproportionately high in ethnic minority, low-income, and other socially marginalized U.S. population groups. Current policy, systems, and environmental change interventions target obesity-promoting aspects of physical, economic, social, More

Date: October 2019

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Healthy Communities