Melinda S. Bender|Philip R. Nader|Christine Kennedy|Sheila Gahagan
A Culturally Appropriate Intervention To Improve Health Behaviors in Hispanic Mother–Child Dyads
University of California, San Francisco|University of California, San Diego|University of California, San Francisco|University of California, San Diego
background obesity interventions targeting hispanic preschool children still nascent culturally appropriate evaluated feasibility culturally relevant 9month intervention program improve health behaviors lowincome mexican mothers 3 5yearold children methods community engagement approach used culturally linguistically tailor intervention program pilot tested 33 motherchild dyads enrolled large california urban health center onegroup pretestposttest design assessed changes childrens consumption sugarsweetened beverages ssb mothers pedometer steps bmi data collected baseline postintervention 6 months postintervention results postintervention ssb consumption significantly decreased soda sugary drinks modest reduction 100 juice consumption water significantly increased whereas milk increased trend maternal step counts significantly increased weekdays 69 weekend days 49 overall maternal bmi decreased childrens bmi remained stable 6 months postintervention childrens soda juice consumption reverted toward baseline levels maternal step counts childrens consumption sugary drinks remained lower water milk remained higher conclusions findings suggest culturally relevant intervention feasible improving target health behaviors lowincome mexican community future work assess enhanced intervention including maintenance phase longterm adherence health behavior changes influence maternal child bmi