Muevete NAHN Miami Chapter Project: Reducing Obesity in Hispanic Children

Messmer, Patricia R.

Introduction: Childhood obesity is widely recognized as a major public health problem of global significance (Onis, 2014). Treating obesity-related illness (25% of Florida population) is $6,675,940 with Latino children at a greater risk of obesity with prevalence increasing over time (Wiley, et al, 2014). Obese children living in Miami-Dade County, Florida (20%) are more likely to develop Diabetes Type 2 and cardiovascular disease (RWJ & NCLS, 2012). From 2012-2014, the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) Miami Chapter was a site for the Muevete USA™ Project to reduce USA Hispanic childhood/adolescent obesity. The program funded by the Coca-Cola Foundation (Milan, 2011) was in partnership with the U.S. 1^st Lady Michelle Obama Let’s Move (www.letsmove.gov) and other weight management programs (Brown et al, 2014).

Purpose: To determine if an educational program on nutrition, labels, physical activity and exercise can increase Hispanic children’s knowledge of preventing obesity.

Methodology: A descriptive exploratory research design. Hispanic children completed five pre/post tests for a total of 15 questions - “My Plate”; “Food Label”; “Physical Activity and Exercise” “Healthy Snacks” and “Goal Setting”. Content validity was established. Community Health ASN & RN-BSN students (90) participated in Muevete projects at Kendall campus (both years) and VG (2^nd year). Students, received 10 community hours for orientation, designing posters and attending the events. Children (4-15), were divided into 12 groups with two students/group; taking food cutouts, making plates with appropriate portions, nutritional requirements and reading labels. A FDA representative taught hand washing techniques.

Results: Over 357 children participated 232 at Kendall and 125 children at VG. Children ranged in age 4-16, M age 8.1 at Kendall while ages 4-17, M age 9.4 at VG. Kendall- predominately Hispanics with more Caucasians than Blacks; VG- equal number Blacks and Hispanics with lower number of Caucasians with more males at both sites. Kendall - M for pretest was 9.4 increasing to 10.58 posttest with 13.62% change. VG site. M pretest was 8.33 increasing to 9.45 with 13% change. Higher scores correlated with older children but not ethnicity- pre to posttest.

Discussion: Children demonstrated awareness/understanding of Nutrition Facts Labels, identified food handling, daily portions of fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, protein and drew a plate with food portions (www.choosemyplate.gov). They exercised with a Yoga instructor, learned CDC hand washing techniques; parents received nutrition classes. Most missed question -“How much Sodium is in this entire food product?” per food label. Although Sodium was 440 mg for one serving, the total for 4 servings was 1760mg.

Conclusion: Children loved Muevete t-shirts; healthy snacks, exercising, They understood the need to wash their hands and learned to overcome and confront childhood obesity. This program helps to reduce obesity for a large number of Hispanic as well as non-Hispanics children, decreasing the obesity level and reducing the associated healthcare costs.