A 16-month follow-up after a youth-led social marketing intervention to encourage healthy lifestyles in children (aged 9 at baseline and 11 at follow-up) from disadvantaged neighbourhoods: the European Youth Tackling Obesity-Kids project

Identifier:  imarina:9371426

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/imarina9371426

Authors:  Llaurado, Elisabet; Pedret, Anna; Valls, Rosa Mari; Sola, Rosa; Tarro, Lucia

Abstract:
Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the in fluence of the European Youth Tackling Obesity -Kids (EYTO-Kids) 10 -month intervention, based on social marketing and peer -led methodologies, at 16 month of its ending. Study design: Children (aged 9 at baseline and 11 at the follow-up) from disadvantaged neighbourhoods who participated in the 10 -month EYTO-Kids parallel -cluster randomised controlled intervention study in Reus (Spain) were included. The number of participants was 252 (retention rate: 67.2%) in the intervention group (7 schools) and 226 (retention rate: 69.1%) in the control one (8 schools). Primary (physical activity and fruit consumption) and secondary (screen time; and vegetables, fast food, and sugary drink consumption) outcomes were assessed. Results: At follow-up, consumption of >= 1 fruit per day increased in girls (odds ratio [OR] (95% con fidence interval [CI]) = 2.28 (1.2; 4.2), P = 0.012) and all children (OR (95%CI) = 2.28 (1.0; 2.6), P = 0.044) in the intervention group vs. the control one. Physical activity >= 6 h/week similarly increased in both groups. Conclusion: At long-term effectiveness of a 10 -month intervention on improving fruit consumption in children was observed. Therefore, peer -led and social marketing methodologies enhance healthy lifestyles by conveying children towards healthy choices. (c) 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Royal Society for Public Health. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).