SNAP-Ed New Mexico Social Marketing Campaign Phase 1 Focus Groups Report

The purpose of the SNAP-Ed New Mexico Social Marketing Campaign is to develop and evaluate culturally appropriate nutrition education intervention messages in Spanish for parents and care-givers of preschool age children, parents of elementary school-age children, and children ages 8-10 years. In collaboration with HSD, the University of New Mexico Prevention Research Center (PRC) set out to develop and test messages to effectively motivate SNAP participants who do not currently meet U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommendations for consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole-grains and low-fat dairy to increase their intake of these foods. This is a three phase project. Phase one of the project was the planning phase and consisted of conducting focus groups with Spanish speaking SNAP eligible individuals to identify the concepts in which the messages for this specific population would be based. This formative research phase was carried out from January 2010 until June 2011.https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/prc-fr/1000/thumbnail.jp

SNAP-Ed New Mexico Social Marketing Project Phase II Report

The SNAP-Ed New Mexico Social Marketing Project is a multiphase study that explores how the core nutrition messages developed by FNS and its collaborators are received by people of Hispanic-origin, particularly those of Mexican or Mexican-American descent. The objective of the SNAP-Ed New Mexico Social Marketing Project is to create culturally appropriate nutrition education messages in Spanish and implement a multi-level social marketing intervention to increase fruit, vegetable, whole grain, and low-fat and fat-free dairy consumption

SNAP-Ed New Mexico Social Marketing Campaign Phase 1 Report

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) plays an essential role in the nutrition status of low-income families in the United States. Although it is not mandatory to provide nutrition education to SNAP recipients, USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) highly encourages each state’s SNAP agency to educate SNAP participants (SNAP-Ed). The purpose of SNAP-Ed is to help SNAP eligible individuals to make healthy food choices consistent with the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, that fit within their limited budget. In New Mexico, SNAP and SNAP-Ed are administered by the State of New Mexico Human Services Department (HSD). FNS guides states to choose the most effective nutrition education tools and strategies to meet the focus of SNAP-Ed. FNS encourages state plans to include “behaviorally focused, sciencebased nutrition education interventions, projects or social marketing campaigns” [1]. Social Marketing is defined as a consumerfocused, research-based process to plan, implement and evaluate interventions that are designed to influence the voluntary behavior of a large number of people in the target audience [1]. The purpose of the SNAP-Ed New Mexico Social Marketing Campaign is to develop and evaluate culturally appropriate nutrition education intervention messages in Spanish for parents and care-givers of preschool age children, parents of elementary school-age children, and children ages 8-10 years. In collaboration with HSD, the University of New Mexico Prevention Research Center (PRC) set out to develop and test messages to effectively motivate SNAP participants who do not currently meet U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommendations for consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole-grains and low-fat dairy to increase their intake of these foods. This is a three phase project. Phase one of the project was the planning phase and consisted of conducting focus groups with Spanish speaking SNAP eligible individuals to identify the concepts in which the messages for this specific population would be based. This formative research phase was carried out from January 2010 until June 2011. Focus groups were conducted with a) parents of preschool children, b) parents of elementary school-age children, and c) children ages 8-10. The goal was to have SNAP-eligible, Spanish speaking parents and children develop “slogans” and “messages” which would resonate with them and their neighbors and encourage families to make healthy food choices. This report outlines the methods used for the focus groups; results from the focus groups with emergent themes and direct quotes from participants; discussion of findings and implications for SNAP-Ed; connections with the consumer-tested FNS Core Nutrition Messages; and next steps for phases two and three of the campaign

SNAP-Ed New Mexico Social Marketing Project Phase II Report

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/prc-fr/1001/thumbnail.jp

RAPS - Student level outcomes of a positive youth development intervention to put public health data into action

The Risk/Resiliency Assessment Project for Students (RAPS) uses a positive youth development approach to engage students directly in the analysis and reporting of their school’s 2011 NM-YRRS data. Participants were 35 high school students from two Albuquerque area high schools who attended a day-long project retreat. Survey metrics included pre/post tests for critical health literacy, participant sense of community engagement, and pre/post assessment of student self-efficacy and civic attitudes. Survey items were derived from The Measure of Service Learning: Research Scales to Assess Student Experiences.https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/prc-posters-presentations/1008/thumbnail.jp

An adaptive community-based participatory approach to formative assessment with high schools for obesity intervention*.

BACKGROUND: In the emerging debate around obesity intervention in schools, recent calls have been made for researchers to include local community opinions in the design of interventions. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an effective approach for forming community partnerships and integrating local opinions. We used CBPR principles to conduct formative research in identifying acceptable and potentially sustainable obesity intervention strategies in 8 New Mexico school communities. METHODS: We collected formative data from 8 high schools on areas of community interest for school health improvement through collaboration with local School Health Advisory Councils (SHACs) and interviews with students and parents. A survey based on formative results was created to assess acceptability of specific intervention strategies and was provided to SHACs. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data were evaluated using an iterative analytic process for thematic identification. RESULTS: Key themes identified through the formative process included lack of healthy food options, infrequent curricular/extracurricular physical activity opportunities, and inadequate exposure to health/nutritional information. Key strategies identified as most acceptable by SHAC members included healthier food options and preparation, a healthy foods marketing campaign, yearly taste tests, an after-school noncompetitive physical activity program, and community linkages to physical activity opportunities. CONCLUSION: An adaptive CBPR approach for formative assessment can be used to identify obesity intervention strategies that address community school health concerns. Eight high school SHACs identified 6 school-based strategies to address parental and student concerns related to obesity