Abstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to examine caregiver perceptions of summertime neighborhood-level environmental barriers and facilitators to healthy eating and active living in their elementary-age racial minority children. Methods: Caregivers with students in the prekindergarten–fifth grade were recruited from two schools located in low-income urban neighborhoods of Columbus, OH, with a predominantly Black population. Participants engaged in the research portion of the Healthy Eating Active Living: Mapping Attribute using Participatory Photographic Surveys (HEALth MAPPSTM) protocol, which included (1) orientation; (2) photographing and geotagging facilitators and barriers to HEALth on daily routes; (3) in-depth interview (IDI) discussing images and routes taken; (4) focus groups (FG). IDIs and FGs were transcribed verbatim. Analyses were guided by grounded theory and interpretive phenomenology and were coded by researchers (n = 3), who used comparative analysis to develop a codebook and determine major themes. Results: A total of 10 caregivers enrolled and 9 completed the IDIs. Five caregivers participated in focus groups. A majority (77.8%, n = 7) of caregivers identified as Black, female (88.9%, n = 8), and low income (55.6%, n = 5). IDI and FG themes included (1) walkway infrastructure crucial for healthy eating and active living; (2) scarce accessibility to healthy, affordable foods; (3) multiple abandoned properties; (4) unsafe activity near common neighborhood routes. Conclusions: Caregivers perceived multiple neighborhood-level barriers to healthy eating and activity during the summer months when school is closed. Findings from this study provide initial insights into environmental determinants of unhealthy summer weight gain in a sample of predominantly racial minority school-age children from low-income households.
Highlights
IntroductionThe summertime and other periods of time when school is closed or out of session is a period of risk for accelerated weight gain among elementary school-aged children [1,2,3,4,5]
The data presented in this article are from the Project Summer Weight and Environmental Assessment Trial (SWEAT) sub-study, the sub-study focused on the neighborhood-level food and physical activity environment
Adapting a portion of the HEALth MAPPSTM methodology for Project SWEAT provided valuable visual insights into the facilitators and barriers to healthy eating and active living for children and adolescents face in underserved, urban communities during the summer months
Summary
The summertime and other periods of time when school is closed or out of session is a period of risk for accelerated weight gain among elementary school-aged children [1,2,3,4,5]. Children who are already overweight or obese and those who identify as non-Hispanic. Black or Hispanic are at greatest risk for this health threat risk for unhealthy summer weight gain [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Some studies suggest that most of the increase in body mass index (BMI) from one year to the occurs over the summer [1,6,7] and that children are most likely to transition into being overweight or obese during the summers after kindergarten and second grade [8]. Our preliminary work [9] and others [2] suggest that BMI decreases
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