African American (AA) adolescents have the highest rates of obesity in the United States. AA males have the highest cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden of any ethnic subgroup; yet paradoxically, they have higher or equal rates of youth sports participation compared to their peers. As a prevention effort against obesity and CVD, pediatric lifestyle behavior counseling is delivered during outpatient clinic visits. However, whether clinic-based counseling creates sustainable positive behavior change is not clear. A partial-systematic review of the literature on coach-facilitated behavior change in the context of youth sports demonstrated promising results for creating sustainable lifestyle change in children. A primary study revealed that coach-lead nutritional behavior change in youth athletes has the potential to create sustainable health behavior change. Greater than eighty percent of children participate play sports. Therefore, a behavior intervention in this context may demonstrate sustainable and positive health effect for AA male youth and all children.Master of Public Healt
