Background and objectives
“Accendi i sensi” (Open your Senses!), was held on 11 October, 2009 in Ticino. The project, developed by ORA of Tenero, was a one-day event designed to educate and motivate families with children between the ages of ages 6-10 to improve their diet and increase their physical activity. Professor L. Suzanne Suggs and Ms. Anna Szczogryn, served as external evaluators of the project. The specific objective was to evaluate the Accendi i sensi event and to understand to what extent do family members change their dietary behavior at 3 and 6 months after participating in Accendi i sensi and to what extent people liked participating in the event.
Methods
Assessments administered prior to the event, immediately after, and 3 and 6 months after were used to assess the impact of the event. A baseline assessment collected information about the population, current behaviors, how motivated and confident they are to improve their diet and activity level, the family make-up and which school the child/children attend. A post event survey measured satisfaction with the event. Three and six month follow-up surveys assessed change in behaviors, motivation, self-efficacy and satisfaction with the event.
Results
A total of 47 parents and 38 children completed the baseline assessment. Parents: Of the 47 parents that completed the baseline, 61.7% were female, 72.3% were married and 55.3% worked part time. 78.7% of households comprised 2 parents and 1 child and childcare was done by parents/spouse in 46.8% of the cases. Regarding parents health status, 55.3% presented a BMI in the normal range and 46.8% considered their health status as good and 34% as very good. Using intent to treat analysis (where those not responding at follow-up data are included using their baseline data), change in tracking of physical activity was statistically significant between baseline, follow-up 1 and follow-up 2, X2(2)= 19.47, p=0.000. All other measures were not significant. No statistically significant results were observed when removing non-responders to the follow-up surveys.
Children: Of 38 participating children at baseline, 55.3% were female and 39.5% were male. Mean age was 8 years old (minimum 6, maximum 10). 23.7% were in the second grade and 60.5% were within the normal Body Mass Index range. Intent to treat analysis showed children’s physical activity had significant results. Children spent more time cleaning or helping to clean the house, X2(2)= 6.65, p=0.036, and the amount of days spent moving in a normal week significantly increased, X2(2)= 21.37, p=0.000. The snacks servings in a regular day significantly decreased, X2(2)= 8.00, p=0.018 among children. Conversely, BMI increased significantly from baseline to 5 follow-up 1 and follow-up 2 X2(2)= 9.83, p=0.007. Other measures did not change significantly. No statistically significant results were observed when removing non-responders to the follow-up surveys.
Satisfaction: In general, parents and children reported that they learned a lot, had fun, would come next year and would recommend the event to friends and other people they know. Concerning the perceived benefit of the event, they reported that the event helped them to be more physically active and to eat healthier, but this level of satisfaction decreased over the 3 to 6 month assessments.
