GO GIRLS! Intervention
The GO GIRLS was developed and implemented to accomplish the following in overweight African-American girls from public housing developments:
- Increase fruit and vegetable intake
- Decrease fat intake
- Decrease fast food intake
- Decrease television watching
- Increase physical activity
Details
This study described the development, implementation and results of an intervention program targeted toward inner-city African-American adolescent females who were overweight.
- Fifty-seven participants were evaluated during the 6 month intervention study.
- The participants were recruited from 4 inner city public housing developments.
- Eight to 14 adolescents in a community space or apartments comprised each session twice each week for two hours for the first 4 months and then weekly for the last two months.
The sessions were designed to:
- increase fruit and vegetable intake
- decrease fat intake
- decrease fast food intake
- decrease television viewing
- increases physical activity.
Typical class sessions:
- Hands on cooking classes and 30-60 minutes of exercise were some examples of activities that comprised each session.
- Another component was to help these girls learn to make behavior changes and develop self-efficacy skills.
- Some issues dealt with reducing portion sizes for moderation in eating behavior; or substituting other foods that were satisfying for less healthier ones.
- Physical activities included:
- jump-roping
- step aerobics
- toning
- walking
- Parents were encouraged to attend as a support group as well as to educate them along with the teens.
How the results were analyzed:
- The manner in which the data were analyzed was to divide those who participated into two groups: higher attenders and low attenders.
- Those that attended less than 50% of the sessions were low attenders, and those with greater than this were considered high attenders.
Results:
- The high attenders demonstrated greater nutrition knowledge scores and more low-fat practices. They were more likely to perceive positive dietary changes and reported more support from friends and family.
- There were no differences in physical outcomes between the two groups
- High attenders did show a small decrease in body fat and an increase in HDL and low attendees showed a slight increase in adiposity
- Both groups had a drop in total cholesterol and systolic blood pressure from the time they first entered the program.
- Those girls who viewed themselves to be “fatter” at the start of the study, tended to lose them most weight regardless of intervention.
Conclusions:
- The program was effective at improving dietary attributes of the program goals
- There was no change in physical activity or reduction in overweight as a result of intervention
A Word of Caution: The study did not look at a comparable group of teens who did not participate in this program. They compared two groups who had participated and divided them into two groups based on percent attendance. There is the possibility that those who did not participate may have gotten heavier in the 6 month time period, where as intervention prevented the decline.
Resources:
Resnicow K, Yaroch AL, Davis A, Wang, DT, Carter S, Slaughter L, Coleman D, Baranowski T. 2000. GO GIRLS!: Results from a nutrition and physical activity program for low-income overweight African American adolescent females. Health Educ. Behav. 27: 616-631.