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

Elisabet Llauradó; Anna Pedret; Rosa Mari Valls; Rosa Solà; Lucía Tarro

doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2024.04.008

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

Public Health. 2024 May 6:232:1-3. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2024.04.008. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Elisabet Llauradó¹, Anna Pedret¹, Rosa Mari Valls², Rosa Solà³, Lucía Tarro²

Affiliations

¹ Functional Nutrition, Oxidation, and Cardiovascular Diseases Group (NFOC-Salut), Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Reus 43201, Spain; Institut Investigació Sanitària Pere i Virgili (IISPV), Reus-Tarragona 43204, Spain.
² Functional Nutrition, Oxidation, and Cardiovascular Diseases Group (NFOC-Salut), Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Reus 43201, Spain.
³ Functional Nutrition, Oxidation, and Cardiovascular Diseases Group (NFOC-Salut), Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Reus 43201, Spain; Institut Investigació Sanitària Pere i Virgili (IISPV), Reus-Tarragona 43204, Spain; Hospital Universitari Sant Joan de Reus, Reus 43204, Spain. Electronic address: rosa.sola@urv.cat.

PMID: 38714149
DOI: 10.1016/j.puhe.2024.04.008

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the influence 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% confidence 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.

Keywords: Children; Follow-up study; Intervention; Lifestyles.