Learning Objective #1: Discuss strategies utilized by family nurse practitioner students to implement a culturally based health promotion project about obesity-related diseases in a small, rural community

Learning Objective #2: Describe development and implementation of a health report card as an intervention for children and parents to “jump start” a home-based weight loss program

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Obesity has emerged as a massive national epidemic. The association between obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and coronary artery disease is well established in adults. A growing body of evidence reveals an association between childhood obesity and impaired glucose tolerance, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia in children.

This culturally based health promotion project provided family nurse practitioner (FNP) students opportunity to develop a Health Report Card based on results of a student designed Health Nutrition Survey of low-income Hispanic, Haitian, and American Black families in a small, rural community whose children attended the local middle school. The survey, translated into the community's primary languages, captured their usual food choices and eating patterns, and identified two major barriers to weight loss: lack of exercise and excessive time watching television or playing computer games. Further analysis revealed that the school menu lacked ethnic food choices, and the vending machines were over used because of popular junk foods.

The FNP students met regularly with faculty, the school's health educator and school nurse to design simple interventions which would not only focus on the children, but also provide parents with information to help “jump start” a weight loss program at home. A secondary goal was to provide school administrators with data that identified local factors contributing to their students' obesity which could offer support for development of additional intervention programs.

A Health Report Card was developed in three languages which reported the student's age, height, weight, body mass index, and blood pressure, and included an explanation for children and their parents. Additionally, FNP students and school children designed sample school menus that reflected culturally diverse foods for both Hispanic and Haitian students. They also identified healthy food and beverage alternatives to replace the non-nutritious high-calorie foods and drinks in the vending machines.