AMES, Iowa, Sep 25, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- The Switch program, "Switch what
You Do, View and Chew," increases healthier eating and reduces TV and computer
screen time in children, U.S. researchers say.
Douglas Gentile, a psychology professor at Iowa State University, worked with a
team of researchers to evaluate the intervention in a group of 1,323 children
and their parents from 10 schools.
The community component is designed to promote awareness of the importance of
healthy lifestyles using paid advertising such as billboards and unpaid media
such as letters to the editors of print publications.
The school component reinforces the Switch messages by providing teachers with
materials and methods to integrate key health concepts into the school day. The
family component involves participating families receiving monthly packets
containing behavioral tools to assist families in altering their health
behaviors.
The study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, found the intervention yielded
encouraging results, with the experimental group showing significant differences
from the control group in both screen time and fruit and vegetable consumption.
"Although modest, these results are not trivial," Gentile says in a statement.
"The effects remained significant at the six-month follow-up evaluation,
indicating maintenance of these differences over time. Such maintenance may
contribute to reduced weight risks in the future."
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