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| Ranking |
Effective Practice |
| Description |
Healthy Eating Lifestyle Program's (HELP) main goal was to help overweight children aged 5-12 years and their families adopt healthier eating habits and increase physical activity. The program intervened with children before they reach adolescents and focused on long-term lifestyle changes in order to prevent the most long-term morbidity. The program emphasized on making better food choices, integrating activity into every day life, and decreasing screen-time, rather that focusing on short term dieting.
HELP's goals were to: reduced weight (BMI < 85% for age in children), percent of body fat, and screen time; improve exercise tolerance, food selection, and exercise and nutrition self-efficacy; normalize cholesterol and lipid levels; decrease fast food purchases; and increase exercise frequency.
Community health promoters provided outreach education to local community organizations and sought referrals of potential program participants. All potential participants and their parents received a health screen along with an activity and nutrition assessment. Overweight and obese children and their primary caretaker participated in five-week series workshops held in local community centers. Parents were also offered the opportunity to join a weekly support group facilitated by a social worker. Once families completed the five series workshop, they received a free one-year membership to a local community center that offered a variety of exercise classes/activities. Six months following the completion of the workshop, families gathered for a sixth session to receive a second round of health, activity, and nutrition assessments.
HELP was offered by four members of the Los Angeles Chronic Disease Management Consortium: California Hospital Medical Center (CHMC), Good Samaritan Hospital, Huntington Hospital, and the National Health Foundation, who served as the evaluator. It was funded by a grant from the UniHealth Foundation.
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| Goal / Mission |
The program's goal is to help overweight children aged 5-12 years and their families adopt healthier eating habits and increase physical activity. |
| Results / Accomplishments |
Between October 2005 and August 2007, 1,135 children and 991 parents registered for HELP, and 458 children and 402 adults completed the program. Eighty percent of adult and 81% of children participants were Hispanic.
A comparison of pre and post health, activity, and nutrition assessments revealed that 69% of children improved their nutrition scores, 73.5% improved their fitness scores, and 92% decreased the amount of time they spent watching television. In addition, 53% of the adults lost weight, 61% improved their nutrition scores, and 79% improved their fitness scores.
Overall, HELP participants experienced a significant BMI z-score reduction of 0.16 (P<0.001).
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| Categories |
Health / Exercise, Nutrition, & Weight
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| Organization(s) |
Los Angeles Chronic Disease Management Consortium |
| Date of Publication |
2009 |
| Date of Implementation |
2005 |
| Geographic Type |
Urban |
| Location |
County: Los Angeles |
| Primary Contact |
Mary Halvorson
4650 Sunset Blvd, mailstop #61
Los Angeles, CA 90027
(323) 669-5963
mhalvorson@chla.usc.edu
http://www.nhfca.org/ProjectDescCurrent.aspx?PI...
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| For more details |
http://www.hopestreetfamilycenter.org/stellent/...
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| Target Audience |
Children, Families |
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