Process Evaluation of a Youth‐Mentor Led Childhood Obesity Prevention Intervention at Urban Recreation Centers

Abstract

Urban recreation centers offer potential venues for youth‐led childhood obesity prevention programs in low‐income African‐American (AA) communities. However, little is known about how well such programs have been implemented. Thus, we aimed to examine the implementation of the B'more Health Communities for Kids (BHCK) peer‐mentoring nutrition program through a detailed process evaluation. We used a train‐the‐trainers approach to train Baltimore college and high school students as BHCK youth‐leaders (n=17), able to deliver nutrition education and cooking demonstrations to children (10–14 years old) attending seven recreation centers located in low‐income, food desert neighborhoods in Baltimore, MD. Each nutrition session (n=98) was evaluated through multiple process measures to ensure adequate reach, dose delivered, and fidelity, based on standards set a priori. Dose was determined based on the number of intervention materials (e.g. taste tests, educational handouts) delivered to the target population (4 standards). Fidelity was defined as the number of BHCK intervention sessions at recreation centers and youth‐leaders attending each session (5 standards). Reach identified the extent that the target population was exposed to intervention activities (2 standards). Process evaluation was analyzed using Microsoft® Excel and was scored as a “high” if the process domain met ≥100% of the high standard set, “medium” (50–99.9% of high standard) and “low” (<50% of high standard). Overall, the BHCK youth‐leader program was delivered with moderate to high reach and dose, and moderate fidelity. On average, 9 children attended each interactive session (total youth interaction, n= 912), over 1000 taste tests and giveaways were provided at sessions, and seven youth leaders completed the BHCK program. Given the success of the BHCK peer‐mentoring program, youth‐led programs can offer a feasible approach to addressing childhood obesity in low‐income African American neighborhoods.Support or Funding InformationThis research was supported by the Johns Hopkins Global Obesity Prevention Center (NIH U54HD070725) and NE‐Regional Nutrition Education Center of Excellence.