This literature review examines the problem of overweight and obesity in African American youth focusing on what is currently known regarding interventions designed to improve the diets of this population. The paper discusses the causes and contributing factors to the rise of overweight and obesity, followed by an overview of the major types of interventions that have been designed to address factors across the social-ecological continuum--that is, from the intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy levels, paying particular attention to school-based interventions. The cultural appropriateness of nutrition interventions for African American youth and barriers to program effectiveness are also explored. Evidence from the literature suggests the need to employ multi-component interventions which emphasize upstream, policy change. In addition, collaborative partnerships have also been identified as being necessary in order to sustain interventions and maximize their long-term impacts. The issue of overweight and obesity among African American youth is a significant public health problem that is associated with the poor quality of diet. Improving the diets of African American children and adolescents requires multi-component, coordinated efforts in order to ameliorate the negative health consequences. This issue suggests the need for continued research to develop effective interventions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-12042008-105619 |
| Date | 29 January 2009 |
| Creators | Mowers, Tarah Lea |
| Contributors | Dr. Lisa Bodnar, Dr. Christopher Keane, Dr. Jeanette Trauth |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-12042008-105619/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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