Club Fit: An Intervention to Address Childhood Obesity Disparities at the Boys & Girls Club of Rochester, MN

Mark L. Wieland, M.D.

Consultant, Primary Care Internal Medicine
Rochester campus of Mayo Clinic

Abstract

Addressing childhood obesity is a national priority that disproportionately affects youth from low income and racially diverse families. After-school programs are promising venues for obesity prevention that serve high-risk youth. Rochester Healthy Community Partnership (RHCP) is a community-based participatory research partnership with 10 years of experience conducting community-based interventions. Club Fit is a collaboration of Boys & Girls Club of Rochester, MN (BGCR) within RHCP that represents three years of partnership development and formative research aimed at prevention of obesity among at-risk youth. In this pilot study, we aim to build on past work to develop and implement a multicomponent intervention to improve physical activity and diet among BGCR members. The intervention includes these components: intrapersonal (self-monitoring and challenges), institutional (establishment of BGCR policy, staff training, development of wellness champions, and social marketing) and community (dissemination of a digital asset map and community calendar for physical activity and healthy eating). The intervention will be assessed for acceptability; preliminary efficacy will be assessed through a pre-post study design with measures taken at baseline and 6 months. Primary outcomes will include physical activity as measured by accelerometry and dietary quality as measured by questionnaires. Secondary outcomes will include body mass index and measures of theory-based mediators. The expected product is a locally derived intervention that will serve as preliminary data for an NIH application to test efficacy through a cluster randomized trial among regional Boys & Girls Clubs of America for promotion of healthy behaviors and the prevention of childhood obesity among at-risk youth.