Developing a National Research Agenda to Reduce Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Increase Safe Water Access and Consumption Among 0- to 5-Year-Olds: A Mixed Methods Approach

Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption in early childhood is a public health concern. Adequate hydration in early childhood is also important. Healthy Eating Research developed a national research agenda to improve beverage consumption patterns among 0- to 5-year-olds. This article focuses on the process used to develop this research agenda. A mixed methods, multi-step process was More

Training High School Student “Citizen Scientists” to Document School Water Access: A Feasibility Study

Youth water consumption is inadequate. Increasing adolescent water consumption could support decreased dental caries and body mass index (BMI). Most schools are required to provide free, potable water. However, there is evidence that schools’ self-reported compliance data overestimate access to water in schools. We tested the feasibility of using student citizen scientists to collect high More

Evaluating the Policy Impact of Healthy Default Beverages in Children’s Meals: Cross-state Comparison

Beginning January 2019 in California and Wilmington, Delaware, all restaurants selling children’s meals that include a beverage must provide healthy default options (unsweetened water and milk in California; water, milk or 100% juice in Delaware). In December 2018, baseline data on children’s meal beverage options were collected from a sample of fast food restaurants in More

Examining differences in the implementation of school water-quality practices and water-access policies by school demographic characteristics

Ensuring safe, accessible drinking water in schools is a national health priority. The objective of this study was to identify whether there are differences in water quality, availability, and education- related practices in schools by demographic characteristics. In 2017–2018, we analyzed data from the 2014 School Health Policies and Practices Study (SHPPS), a nationally representative, More

Parental and Provider Perceptions of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Interventions in the First 1,000 Days: A Qualitative Study

Novel approaches to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption during the first 1,000 days – pregnancy through age 2 years – are urgently needed. This study examined perceptions of SSB consumption and acceptability of potential intervention strategies to promote SSB avoidance in low income families in the first 1,000 days. Themes related to SSB consumption included More

Studying the Impact of Ecological Momentary Interventions on Sugary-Beverage Consumption by Children Through Age 2 in Low-Income Families

The first 1,000 days describes the period from pre-pregnancy through age 2 years, and is increasingly recognized as a critical period for development of childhood obesity. The overall goal of this study is to test mobile technology-based ecologic momentary interventions (EMIs) to deliver policy-relevant health messages among families living in Washington Heights, a low-income New More