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Evaluation of a Childhood Obesity Awareness Campaign Targeting Head Start Families: Designed by Parents for Parents
- Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 24, Number 2, May 2013, Supplement
- pp. 25-33
- 10.1353/hpu.2013.0096
- Article
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The Communities for Healthy Living program used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to empower Head Start parents in designing and pilot testing a multi-component family-centered obesity prevention program. One program component was a childhood obesity awareness campaign addressing common parental misconceptions about obesity. The campaign was designed by a community advisory board of parents to target specific issues identified within their own community. Results from pre-post intervention surveys (N=108) showed that campaign exposure was high; 92% of responding parents reported noticing the campaign. Parents also demonstrated significant increases in awareness of childhood obesity, along with decreases in obesity-related misconceptions. Findings, supported by growing literature on CBPR, suggest a CBPR approach to campaign development is an effective strategy to promote parent awareness of childhood obesity.