mHealth Improved Fruit and Vegetable Accessibility and Intake in Young Children.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the potential of mHealth using smartphones to improve fruit and vegetable intake in children. DESIGN: A 10-week randomized control and intervention pilot study. SETTING: Story time sessions at local libraries. PARTICIPANTS: A convenience sample of 30 parents and children (aged 3-8 years). INTERVENTION: Delivery of nutrition intervention through the mobile Jump2Health website, Facebook posts, and text messages. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Electronic food photos of children's meals and snacks, 10-question survey related to fruit and vegetable consumption, reflectance spectroscopy via Veggie Meter to measure skin carotenoid levels, body mass index percentiles, and a mobile learning survey. ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test. RESULTS: Veggie Meter values for children and parents showed significant week × treatment interactions in the intervention group compared with the control group for both children (P < .001 and parents (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: This pilot study offers a potentially effective program including a mobile Web site, social media, and test message components to increase fruit and vegetable intake of young children.

Improving Cancer Risk Awareness Including Obesity as a Risk Factor for Cancer in a Small U.S. Community.

Obesity is a risk for certain types of cancer; however, awareness of obesity as a risk factor for cancer is low. This study evaluated increases in cancer risk awareness, including obesity as a risk factor for cancer, from a quasi-experimental intervention that provided educational materials and community reinforcement for healthy living. The study uses data on participant's awareness of cancer risk factors along with sociodemographic variables collected from in-person surveys (N = 863) at baseline (June 2011) and post intervention (June 2012). The average awareness that overweight and obesity are risk factors for cancer was low (35 %) compared to chewing tobacco (92 %), using tanning bed (73 %), and sunburn (97 %) at baseline. The intervention significantly increased participants' awareness that overweight and obesity are risk factors for cancer. Based on regression analysis, the unadjusted intervention effect on cancer risk awareness was significant: 0.392 ± 0.165 (p value = 0.020) for matched participants and 0.282 ± 0.125 (p value = 0.024) for community participants. The adjusted intervention effect was significant in the matched participants (0.528 ± 0.189, p value = 0.006). Education, income, gender, and age had a significant impact on cancer risk awareness for the community participants. The results show that community intervention that incorporates community reinforcement can have the desired effect regardless of differences at participant level. Such interventions could be used to prevent cancer risk in communities that are at high risk.

Military Parents' Personal Technology Usage and Interest in e-Health Information for Obesity Prevention.

BACKGROUND: U.S. military families are experiencing high obesity rates similar to the civilian population. The Department of Defense's Military Health System (MHS) is one of the largest healthcare providers in the United States, serving approximately 9.2 million active duty service members, retirees, spouses, and children. The annual cost to the MHS for morbidities associated with being overweight exceeds $1 billion. The preschool age has been suggested as an opportune time to intervene for the prevention of obesity. Thus, this study investigated the current level of technology usage by military service member families and assessed their needs and interests in health/nutrition information. This needs assessment is crucial for researchers/educators to design further studies and intervention programs for obesity prevention in military families with young children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In total, 288 military parents (233 Army and 55 Air Force) at two military bases whose children were enrolled in military childcare centers in the southwestern United States participated in a Technology Usage in Military Family (TUMF) survey in 2013. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Overall, both bases presented similar technology usage patterns in terms of computer and mobile device usage on the Internet. Air Force base parents had a slightly higher knowledge level of nutrition/health information than Army base parents. The TUMF survey suggested practical ways such as mobile applications/Web sites, social networks, games, etc., that health educators can use to disseminate nutrition/health information for obesity prevention among military families with young children.

Reducing cancer risk in rural communities through supermarket interventions.

Cancer risk is high, and prevention efforts are often minimal in rural communities. Feasible means of encouraging lifestyles that will reduce cancer risk for residents of rural communities are needed. This project developed and tested a model that could be feasibly adopted by rural communities to reduce cancer risk. This model focuses on incorporating multi-faceted cancer risk education in the local supermarket. As the supermarket functions both as the primary food source and an information source in small rural communities, the supermarket focus encourages the development of a community environment supportive of lifestyles that should reduce residents' risk for cancer. The actions taken to implement the model and the challenges that communities would have in implementing the model are identified.