FP1 Extending Education: WISE Lessons From Facebook and Retail Connections

Abstract

Objective This study examined the acceptability and feasibility of Facebook to provide ECE support on a nutrition curriculum, WISE. Parents and community members were targeted with a WISE component located in grocery stores. Nutrition interventions targeting children in early childcare are often intended to improve consumption and access in care and at home. For quality implementation of curriculum early childcare educators (ECE) need ongoing and on-demand support. Improving the nutritional environment in the community may result from public access to intervention components. Description ECEs (N = 776) attending WISE training were randomly assigned to receive support via Facebook. Most ECEs were White (63.0%), lead teachers (61.3%), and had a Bachelor's degree (39.5%). WISE communities (N = 8) were randomly assigned for retail intervention over a two year cohort. Cohort 1 (n = 4) received in-person support to implement and cohort 2 (n = 4) received online support. The sites were selected based on the ratio of children in WISE-trained centers to population. The poverty level of children ( Evaluation Facebook statistics were used to assess the success of acceptance including the number of invitees that a) accepted the invitation to ‘friend’ the project Facebook page, b) that engaged, and c) that initiated. Retail engagement was assessed by the response of the store management to the project (location of display, willingness to engage with project staff), number of WISE handouts distributed or downloaded (cohort 2), and requests to continue or expand. Few ECEs (3.9%) accepted invitation, engaged (53%) or initiated (6%) activities even when offered incentives, polls, and alterations in security settings. All retail managers were enthusiastic to the project, asked for permission to expand, and continue after support was reduced to online. One thousand ninety two paper handouts were disseminated and online handouts reached 406. Conclusions and Implications In our study, Facebook was not acceptable based on the lack of engagement by ECEs. This preliminary evidence suggests that retail connections are feasible and acceptable. Grant Year 2016