TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of a Gardening and Physical Activity Intervention in Title 1 Schools
T2 - The TGEG Study
AU - Van Den Berg, Alexandra
AU - Warren, Judith L.
AU - McIntosh, Alex
AU - Hoelscher, Deanna
AU - Ory, Marcia G.
AU - Jovanovic, Christine
AU - Lopez, Michael
AU - Whittlesey, Lisa
AU - Kirk, Alice
AU - Walton, Caren
AU - McKyer, Lisako
AU - Ranjit, Nalini
N1 - Funding Information:
This material is based on work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2011-68001-30138. This study was partially funded by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation through resources provided by the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living, The University of Texas (UTHealth) School of Public Health at Austin Campus.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright 2020, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2020.
PY - 2020/8
Y1 - 2020/8
N2 - Background: The purpose of the Texas!Grow!Eat!Go! (TGEG) study was to assess individual and combined effects of school-based gardening and physical activity (PA) interventions on children's eating and PA behaviors and obesity status. Methods: Using a 2 × 2 design, 28 low-income schools in Texas were randomized to 1 of 4 conditions: (1) School Garden intervention (Learn!Grow!Eat!Go! [LGEG]), (2) PA intervention (Walk Across Texas [WAT!]), (3) both Garden and PA intervention (Combined), or (4) neither Garden nor PA intervention (Control). Participants included 1326 third grade students and parents (42% Hispanic; 78% free/reduced lunch). Student and parent data were collected at the beginning and end of the school year. Two different sets of analyses measuring pre-post changes in outcomes within and across conditions were estimated by factorial ANOVAs using mixed models adjusted for demographics. Results: Main effect analyses indicate that relative to children at schools that did not receive LGEG, children at schools that received LGEG, either individually or in combination with WAT!, showed significant increases in Nutrition knowledge, Vegetable preference, and Vegetable tasted (p < 0.001 in all cases). Within-group analyses show that compared to Comparison, children in the WAT! group significantly increased in the amount of time parents and children were active together (p = 0.038). In addition, children in LGEG and WAT! schools significantly decreased BMI percentile (p = 0.042, p = 0.039, respectively), relative to children in Comparison schools. Conclusions: Both the garden and PA interventions independently produced significant changes related to healthy lifestyle behaviors. However, combining the two interventions did not show greater impact than the single interventions, underscoring the need for more research to determine how to better implement comprehensive interventions at schools.
AB - Background: The purpose of the Texas!Grow!Eat!Go! (TGEG) study was to assess individual and combined effects of school-based gardening and physical activity (PA) interventions on children's eating and PA behaviors and obesity status. Methods: Using a 2 × 2 design, 28 low-income schools in Texas were randomized to 1 of 4 conditions: (1) School Garden intervention (Learn!Grow!Eat!Go! [LGEG]), (2) PA intervention (Walk Across Texas [WAT!]), (3) both Garden and PA intervention (Combined), or (4) neither Garden nor PA intervention (Control). Participants included 1326 third grade students and parents (42% Hispanic; 78% free/reduced lunch). Student and parent data were collected at the beginning and end of the school year. Two different sets of analyses measuring pre-post changes in outcomes within and across conditions were estimated by factorial ANOVAs using mixed models adjusted for demographics. Results: Main effect analyses indicate that relative to children at schools that did not receive LGEG, children at schools that received LGEG, either individually or in combination with WAT!, showed significant increases in Nutrition knowledge, Vegetable preference, and Vegetable tasted (p < 0.001 in all cases). Within-group analyses show that compared to Comparison, children in the WAT! group significantly increased in the amount of time parents and children were active together (p = 0.038). In addition, children in LGEG and WAT! schools significantly decreased BMI percentile (p = 0.042, p = 0.039, respectively), relative to children in Comparison schools. Conclusions: Both the garden and PA interventions independently produced significant changes related to healthy lifestyle behaviors. However, combining the two interventions did not show greater impact than the single interventions, underscoring the need for more research to determine how to better implement comprehensive interventions at schools.
KW - dietary intake
KW - ethnic disparities
KW - physical activity
KW - school intervention
KW - weight status
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U2 - 10.1089/chi.2019.0238
DO - 10.1089/chi.2019.0238
M3 - Article
C2 - 32857610
AN - SCOPUS:85090176636
VL - 16
SP - S44-S54
JO - Childhood Obesity
JF - Childhood Obesity
SN - 2153-2168
IS - S1
ER -