LA Sprouts: The Impact of Gardening and Nutrition Education on Childhood Obesity in Latino Youth

Summary

The overall goal of this project is to conduct a randomized controlled 12-week after school, gardening, nutrition and cooking program (called "LA Sprouts") to improve dietary intake and reduce obesity in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students (ages 8-12 years) in Los Angeles. Approximately 400 3rd - 5th grade students participating in the LA's Best after school program will participate. Four elementary schools in Los Angeles will be selected to participate in the study. Schools will be randomized by region to either receive the intervention (LA Sprouts; 2 schools, n=200 students) or serve as controls (received a delayed intervention program one school semester later; 2 schools, n=200 students). The LA Sprouts intervention will take place at the elementary schools, with gardens on campus specially designed and built for this project. The program will be held once a week for 12 weeks and will consist of a 45-minute gardening lesson, taught by Master Gardeners from the University of California Cooperative Extension (supervised by Nicole Gatto, MPH, PhD), and a 45-minute nutrition education and cooking lesson, taught by USC a Nutrition Educator (supervised by Jaimie Davis, PhD, RD). Measures of childhood obesity (i.e., body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentages), blood pressure, metabolic function (fasting blood glucose, insulin and lipids), dietary intake and related behaviors, and school performance will be measured before and after the implementation of the program in both intervention and control participants. Approximately 10 additional students of the same age will be asked to participate in a focus group to evaluate the questionnaire developed for this study. In addition, approximately 20 additonal students of the same age will be asked to participate in a test-retest session to validate the reliability of the questionnaire.

Conditions

• Pediatric Obesity

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

LA Sprouts intervention

see arm 1 description

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Loma Linda University

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Texas at Austin

  collaborator OTHER

• University of California, Los Angeles

  collaborator OTHER

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  collaborator NIH

• Annenberg Foundation

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Southern California

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Donna Spruijt-Metz, PhD · University of Southern California

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

8 Years

Max Age

12 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2011-07-31

Primary Completion

2013-12-31

Completion

2013-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations