Child Care as an Untapped Setting for Obesity Prevention: State Child Care Licensing Regulations Related to Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Media Use for Preschool-Aged Children in the United States

There are 8.6 million preschool-aged children enrolled in child-care facilities in the United States. The licensing regulations for these facilities in the areas of nutrition, physical activity, and media use (e.g., television, videos, computers) show that there are many potential opportunities to prevent obesity among these children.

Identifying and Evaluating Food Environment Changes Improving Access to Affordable Healthy Foods in Low-Income Communities

The goal of this research is to evaluate the Fresh to You (FTY) program, which aims to increase year-round access to affordable, high-quality, fresh fruits and vegetables for low-income families through implementation of year-round discount fruit and vegetable markets in community organizations. Specifically, this work will consist of (a) conducting process evaluations of FTY in More

Examining Higher and Lower Income Household Food Purchasing Behavior and Whether It May Be Responsible for Childhood Obesity

This project will examine the extent to which household food purchasing behavior differs between higher- and lower-income households and whether these differences may be partly responsible for socioeconomic differences in childhood obesity. In addition, investigators will use econometric models of household food purchases to simulate the extent to which pricing policies, such as taxes on More

Reviewing Current State Child Care Regulations Related to Healthy Eating and Developing Model Healthy Eating Regulations

The overall goal of this project is to develop relevant, evidence-based resources to guide the creation or revision of state-level child care regulations aimed at promoting healthy eating. Investigators will systematically review and categorize data on state regulations for child-care centers and family child-care homes, and states will receive a ‘report card’ outlining their grade More

Creating Healthy Food and Eating Environments: Policy and Environmental Approaches

Individual behavior to make healthy choices can occur only in a supportive environment with accessible and affordable healthy food choices. This article presents an overview of food environments and strategies for creating healthy eating environments. An ecological framework is presented for conceptualizing the many food environments and conditions that influence food choices, followed by a More

Survey of Eating Environments and Policies in Head Start

The aim of this study is to describe eating environments and policies in Head Start at the national level, examining their variation by program characteristics. In partnership with DHHS and USDA, this project will develop a survey to describe eating environments and policies in Head Start (including issues such as foods offered, use of nutrient-based More

Reducing the Risk of Obesity for African-American Youth by Developing a Program to Improve the Food Environment in Baltimore

This project will evaluate an innovative intervention to change the food environment to reduce obesity risk among low-income urban African American children. Specifically, it will (a) develop, implement and evaluate a program that creates healthy eating zones around selected city schools that will increase the availability of healthy food options and promote them at the More

The Role of Child-Care Settings in Obesity Prevention

A majority of American children participate in non-parental child-care arrangements in child-care centers and homes. The child-care setting can play a major role in shaping children’s dietary intake, physical activity, and energy balance. In this article, the authors discuss trends in child-care use, child-care food and physical activity policies and environments, and obesity prevention interventions More