Trends in health behavior at an afterschool program: the impact of COVID-19 on students' behavior

Emily Yamron; Jee-Young Moon; Paul Meissner; Judith Wylie-Rosett; Viswanathan Shankar; Jessica Rieder

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2679660/v1

Trends in health behavior at an afterschool program: the impact of COVID-19 on students' behavior

Res Sq [Preprint]. 2023 Mar 28:rs.3.rs-2679660. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2679660/v1.

Authors

Emily Yamron¹, Jee-Young Moon¹, Paul Meissner², Judith Wylie-Rosett¹, Viswanathan Shankar¹, Jessica Rieder³

Affiliations

¹ Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
² Montefiore Medical Center.
³ Children's Hospital at Montefiore.

Abstract

Background: A minority of American youth meet CDC physical activity (PA) recommendations; children in the Bronx face additional structural barriers to engaging in PA. The B'N Fit Power expansion draws on pilot programming to increase the proportion of middle school students who engage in one hour of daily PA. The COVID-19 pandemic presented additional obstacles, including increased food insecurity and suspension of organized PA programming. This research aimed to evaluate differences in baseline target behavior attainment before and after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to inform future programming to help children reduce their risk of obesity.

Methods: Afterschool program leaders at three Bronx public schools collected demographic and target behavior data at baseline and attendance data throughout the school year.

Results: During the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years, 76 students enrolled and completed one year of programming, which was administered at a single site (61 % Hispanic, 46% female). Of these, 76 (100%) completed a baseline target behaviors questionnaire. During the 2021-2022 school year, 417 students enrolled and completed one year of programming at one of the three sites (70% Hispanic, 48% female). 89 (21%) completed a baseline target behaviors questionnaire. Participants surveyed after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic reported drinking more sugar-sweetened beverages (Median=3 daily, IQR 2-5), sleeping less (Median=8 hours daily, IQR 6-9 hours), and consuming fast food more frequently (Median=1 time weekly, IQR 0 times weekly-2 to 3 times weekly) than those surveyed prior to the start of the pandemic. The number of PA hours completed each week trended toward significant decline (Median=3, IQR 2-5, p=0.09) in students tracked after the start of the pandemic.

Conclusions: The attainment of several target behaviors among school children linked to the reduction of childhood obesity declined during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings can be applied to enhancing existing real-world afterschool PA programming.

Keywords: COVID-19; afterschool program; childhood obesity; physical activity.

Publication types

Preprint

Grants and funding

This study was made possible with funding from the Human Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Healthy Tomorrows Partnership for Children Program grant (PI: Rieder Grant Numbers H17MC29435, H17MC33892, and H17MC40191) and the Life Course Methodology Core (LCMC) of the New York Regional Center for Diabetes Translation Research via a grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (grant numbers DK111022-8786 and P30 DK111022). The HRSA funding has provided salary support for JR, JYM, and VS related to study design, analysis, and interpretation of the data and to write the manuscript. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the HRSA or National Institutes of Health.