Increasing Vegetable Intake in Children

Not Applicable

Completed

Brief Summary: The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of an innovative approach to increase the amount of vegetable's (V) intake consumed by preschool children who are predominately African-American (AA) and Hispanic-American (HA).

Detailed Description: The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of an innovative approach to increase the amount of vegetable's (V) intake consumed by preschool children who are predominately African-American (AA) and Hispanic-American (HA).The primary endpoint will be changes in V consumption in high school children with the hypothesis that a puppet intervention will increase their V consumption by preschool children. To achieve the project goal, our specific aims (SA) are to: SA1: Successfully recruit 6 preschool (PS) centers and 168 AA and 168 HA children 3 to 5 y enrolled there. SA2: Conduct individual interviews for formative assessment of the PUPPET shows. SA3: Develop the manual of operation and intervention protocols SA4: Develop 4 videotaped theatre-based PUPPET shows that are developmentally and cognitively appropriate for use with 3- to 5-year-old AA and HA children SA5: Pilot-test the feasibility of the PUPPET intervention with 3 intervention and 3 control HS centers. SA6: Use the data collected in Aim 5 to estimate parameters required to conduct a group randomized trial for an evaluation of the efficacy of the intervention. The primary hypothesis (H1) to be tested is that children who receive the PUPPET intervention will demonstrate increased V consumption in HS compared to children in the control group.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

Exclusion Criteria

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
HA - Increase vegetable intake	Increase vegetable intake in pre-school children	60 Hispanic-American (HA) preschool children will participate in the Intervention Group. 60 HA children will belong to the Control Group. 6-week Intervention: 120 AA and HA children will be shown the Puppet Shows and will be given a bag of ingredients to prepare the vegetable highlighted that week in the Puppet Show. The 6 week intervention includes a baseline assessment (1 week), followed by the intervention (4 weeks), and post assessment (1 week). The primary hypothesis to be tested is children who receive the PUPPET intervention with a parent/teacher component will demonstrate "increase vegetable intake in pre-school children".
AA - Increase vegetable intake	Increase vegetable intake in pre-school children	60 African-American (AA) preschool children will participate in the Intervention Group. 60 AA children will belong to the Control Group. 6-week Intervention: 120 AA and HA children will be shown the Puppet Shows and will be given a bag of ingredients to prepare the vegetable highlighted that week in the Puppet Show. The 6 week intervention includes a baseline assessment (1 week), followed by the intervention (4 weeks), and post assessment (1 week). The primary hypothesis to be tested is children who receive the PUPPET intervention with a parent/teacher component will demonstrate "increase vegetable intake in pre-school children".

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Vegetable Intake in Preschool Children	1 year 11 months	There will be 2 phases to program development: diagnostic and formative. The diagnostic phase will consist of 20 individual interviews with child-care providers and parents (½ AA, ½ HA) and 20 interviews with preschool children (½ AA, ½ HA).In addition the parents will be asked to complete the Cooking Confidence Questionnaire, the Barriers and Facilitators Questionnaire on Vegetables and a list of their child's favorite vegetables before coming to the interview. Implementation will include the showing of the 4 video-taped puppet shows to 10-12 children immediately prior to the lunch meal on 4 consecutive days. These children will be assessed at lunch using the digital diet estimation method.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method