Assessing Digital Food and Beverage Marketing in Middle Schools Nationally to Inform Policy to Restrict Marketers’ Access to Children

This study aims to assess school digital marketing environments in a national sample of middle schools to identify opportunities and barriers to limit school-based marketing. This team previously developed a survey to assess digital marketing in schools as part of a previous HER-funded grant which will be used in this study. The specific aims of More

Impact of Policies on Physical Activity and Screen Time Practices in 50 Child-Care Centers in North Carolina

This study assessed whether physical activity and screen-time policies in child-care centers were associated with physical activity and screen-time practices and preschool children’s physical activity. Data were collected from a sample of 50 child-care centers in North Carolina. Center directors completed a survey to assess center-level policies around physical activity and screen time. Research assistants More

Comparative Evaluation of a South Carolina Policy to Improve Nutrition in Child Care

In April 2012, South Carolina enacted 13 nutrition standards for child-care centers serving lower-income children throughout the state. This study evaluated consistency with the standards before and after the policy took effect using North Carolina, a state not making policy changes, as the comparison. Researchers recorded foods and beverages served to children and documented the More

Examining the Association Between Schools’ Nutrition Environment and Children’s Weight Status by Income and Race/Ethnicity

There is interest among school administrators, researchers, and policymakers for information to guide choices in selecting school-based nutrition interventions and efficiently allocating resources. This study will systematically evaluate the nutrition strategies that schools across the country have initiated for obesity prevention to determine which school nutrition programs and policies are associated with higher or lower More

Gathering Baseline Data to Understand Implementation Changes and the Impact of the New Child and Adult Care Food Program Standards

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently proposed updated nutrition standards for foods and beverages served in Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) participating child-care centers and homes. This study will contribute to the tracking of successes and challenges following implementation of the new nutrition standards, and will build off of two prior HER-funded More

The Influence of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Health Warning Labels on Parents’ Choices

U.S. states have introduced bills requiring sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) to display health warning labels. This study examined how warning labels influence parents and which labels are most effective. Over 2,000 demographically and educationally diverse parents of children ages 6 to 11 participated in an online survey. Parents were randomized to one of 6 conditions: 1) More

Effect of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act on the Nutritional Quality of Meals Selected by Students and School Lunch Participation Rates

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA), which took effect at the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, updated the meal patterns and nutrition standards for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP) to align with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This study assessed changes in energy and nutrient density More

Association Between Student Purchases of Beverages During the School Commute and In-School Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, San Francisco Bay Area, 2013

The objective of this study was to describe where students from lower-income, ethnically diverse communities obtain the sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) they drink during school lunchtime and to examine whether students who purchase beverages while traveling to and from school are more likely to drink SSBs during lunchtime. This cross-sectional study used survey data from 597 More

Studying the Nutritional Profile of Packaged Food Purchases under the Revised Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children

This will be the first systematic study to quantify on a national scale how the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food package changes, which were made in 2009 and finalized in 2014, relate to packaged food purchases (PFP) before and after these changes were made. The changes were intended More

Examining Policies Providing Access to Free Water in Schools and the Health Impact of an Alternative to Sugar-Sweetened Beverages

This award will support a natural experiment that will (1) examine the change in free drinking water access in Food Service Areas in California public schools from before to after Senate Bill 1413/Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act implementation; (2) assess changes in the proportion of schools with excellent water access and barriers and facilitators to More