Nutrition faculty present research in Portugal

Jean Anliker and Elena Carbone, associate professors of Nutrition, presented some preliminary research findings at the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity from June 17-20 in Lisbon, Portugal.

Carbone, who is interim department head, said a platform talk introduced their group’s eight-week healthy eating and physical activity intervention program known as SPIN. Strength and Power in Nutrition was designed to appeal to adolescents at a time when they are going through dramatic physiological, hormonal and psychological changes but do not yet have fully developed critical thinking skills.

“To develop SPIN, we combined the results of formative research with 11- to 14-year-olds, (‘tweens’) and Lindstrom’s marketing model, retaining elements of social cognitive and social ecological theories,” the researchers say. They tested the program’s effectiveness with 77 culturally-diverse low-income tweens in Massachusetts, collecting survey data after each session, with focus groups after interventions and observing the young people as they shopped for groceries. The tweens reported what they learned and what they would tell a friend about the session, for example, the message, “You are stronger than advertising.”

Focus groups showed that SPIN participants were able to identify core values including humor and fun, fear (suspense), mastery, fantasy, love and stability, as well as the three tactics of gaming, collection value and mirror effect. The young people said these components made them want to attend, and helped them to learn. Observing tweens shopping showed that they applied the learned information. Carbone and colleagues concluded that “a marketing model-based healthy eating and physical activity intervention can help adolescents become engaged, want to attend sessions, and remember and apply key messages.”

The second presentation, a poster, also was based on SPIN. The study explored the effects of SPIN interventions on food shopping behavior in tween boys and girls recruited from Massachusetts Boys and Girls Clubs. The 17 young people attended SPIN sessions, then were taken shopping once a week for three weeks. They were given $2 per week to spend or save. Ten were also asked to “think aloud” into a cassette recorder about their choices and purchases. In addition, the researchers collected the purchases and calculated three data points per subject: a “naturally nutrient rich” (NNR) score, total calories and calories per dollar spent. Carbone and colleagues found significantly higher NNR, fewer total calories and fewer calories per dollar purchased after the SPIN intervention compared to before.

Both studies were conducted with Laura Hutchinson of Holyoke Community College and funded by the National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service.

June 21, 2009.

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