Marketing of sugar-sweetened children’s drinks and parents’ misperceptions about benefits for young children

Despite expert recommendations, U.S. parents often serve sugar-sweetened children’s drinks, including sweetened fruit-flavored drinks and toddler milks, to young children. This qualitative research explored parents’ understanding of common marketing tactics used to promote these drinks and whether they mislead parents to believe the drinks are healthy and/or necessary for children. We conducted nine focus groups More

Changing Policies and Practices to Implement Beverage Consensus Recommendations

In 2018, Healthy Eating Research (HER)—a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)—developed a national research agenda to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) and increase access to and consumption of safe drinking water among 0- to 5-year-olds. Through this process, it became clear that a lack of consistent recommendations for beverage More

Experimental study to test effects of front-of- package disclosures of percent juice, added sugar, and non-nutritive sweeteners on parents’ understanding of ingredients in sweetened and unsweetened children’s drinks

The purpose of this study is to examine whether front-of-package (FOP) disclosures increase parents’ (of children ages 1-5) ability to accurately identify amount of juice and the presence of added sugar and non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) in children’s drinks (fruit drinks, flavored waters, 100% juice and diluted juice/water blends). The specific aims are: (1) develop and More

Restaurant kids’ meal beverage offerings before and after implementation of healthy default beverage policy statewide in California compared with citywide in Wilmington, Delaware

In 2019, California and Wilmington, Delaware implemented policies requiring healthier default beverages with restaurant kids’ meals. The current study assessed restaurant beverage offerings and manager perceptions. Pre-implementation, the most common kids’ meal beverages on California menus were unflavored milk and water (78·8 %, 52·0 %); in Wilmington, juice, milk and sugar-sweetened beverages were most common More

SHIFT: Testing Culturally Appropriate Messaging for Black Community to Limit Children’s Sugary-Beverage Intake and Increase Water Consumption

The project’s goal is to conduct a randomized, controlled trial to evaluate the impact of a culturally appropriate social behavior change communication campaign on sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) and water consumption among black families with children aged 0-5 years. Specific aims include: (1) Deliver a culturally appropriate social behavior change communication campaign with messages delivered through More

Developing Policy and Environmental Approaches to Sustain an Early Head Start Healthy Beverage Program Among Hispanic Families of Infants and Toddlers

The study uses a systems science approach to identify upstream strategies that can support sustained changes in the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and water in a low-income, predominantly Hispanic community. This research is designed to generate information crucial for the development of robust multilevel systems recommendations that are contextually and culturally appropriate. Specific aims include: More

Understanding and increasing water availability and accessibility in family child care homes to improve young children’s water and sugary beverage intake

This study seeks to explore the barriers, facilitators, and feasible strategies to increase drinking water access, availability, and intake in family childcare homes (FCCH). Specific aims include: (1) Conduct provider focus groups to determine barriers and strategies to improve water access/intake in FCCH; (2) Conduct intervention pilot with 40 providers operating FCCH in low income More

Long-term impact of home-visiting on SSB intake & early childhood obesity, and effects of emergency COVID-19 water equity efforts on the Navajo Nation

This research extends follow up on Native American children enrolled in the Prevention of Early Childhood Obesity 1 (PECO1) study 2017-2019 to determine whether positive impacts of the Family Spirit Nurture intervention on infant sugar sweetened beverage intake and infant growth are sustained through 5 years of age. It also examines point of use water More

Healthy default beverage policies for kids’ meals: A statewide baseline assessment of restaurant managers’ perceptions and knowledge in Delaware

This study evaluated restaurant managers’ knowledge and support of a healthy default beverage policy in Delaware that had passed, but not yet gone into effect. We conducted structured in-person interviews with managers (n = 50) from full-service and quick-service chain and non-chain restaurants (QSRs) using a stratified random sample. Managers were interviewed about the number More

Implementing eLearning to Improve Healthy Beverage Policy Implementation Among Early Care and Education Teachers

The overall goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an interactive, eLearning beverage policy training (iBevSmart) paired with eCoaching (technical assistance consultation and resources) for ECE centers in Georgia. The iBevSmart guided training features four modules on water, milk, juice, and SSBs, and includes an interactive avatar, videos, and engagement activities. The More