Mini-ME - an innovative and fun, early childhood obesity prevention program that will help AA girls aged 4-8 years adopt HEAL practices.

Mini-ME - 一项创新且有趣的早期儿童肥胖预防计划，将帮助 4-8 岁的 AA 女孩采取 HEAL 做法。

• 批准号: 10080409
• 负责人: Tony Xuyen Ma
• 金额: $ 41.27万
• 依托单位: BENTEN TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-04 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10080409
• 关键词: 8 year old; Address; Adopted; Adoption; Adult; Affect; African American; Age; Asthma; Attention; Behavior; Behavior Therapy; Behavioral; Bluetooth; Body Size; Caregivers; Caring; Child; Child Rearing; Cholesterol; Chronic; Collaborations; Communication; Communities; Complex; Consumption; Coupled; Dancing; Development; Eating; Educational process of instructing; Educational workshop; Ethnic Origin; Ethnic group; Exposure to; Fatty acid glycerol esters; Food; Food Safety; Freezing; Friendships; Health; Health Food; Healthy Eating; Home environment; Hypertension; Intervention; Joints; Knowledge; Learning; Life Style; Methods; Minnesota; Names; Neighborhoods; Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus; Obesity; Overweight; Parents; Pattern; Phase; Physical activity; Play; Prevention program; Preventive Intervention; Principal Investigator; Psychological reinforcement; Race; Recommendation; Research; Risk; Safety; Self Efficacy; Series; Sesame - dietary; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Taste preferences; Technology; Testing; Universities; Voice; active lifestyle; age group; aged; base; behavior change; boys; design; early childhood; food marketing; fruits and vegetables; girls; high risk; improved; innovation; member; mobile application; neighborhood safety; obesity in children; obesity prevention; prevent; primary caregiver; programs; prototype; role model; social; social relationships; social skills; usability; wireless fidelity

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Obesity among children is an escalating problem and among all other ethnic groups, African American (AA) children have the highest prevelance of pediatric obesity. One in 4 AA girls are obese – the obesity rate among AA girls is higher than girls of other ethnicities and AA boys as well. Obesity increases a child’s risk for various chronic lifestyle conditions and is associated with a greater likelihood of these conditions persisting in adulthood as well. Research suggests that the onset of obesity among girls begins around age 6, and it is important to address obesity prevention in early childhood since it is a crucial period for developing taste preferences and healthy behaviors. A lack of healthy eating and active living (HEAL) is the leading contributor to childhood obesity and there are various barriers such as cultural norms, lack of knowledge, lack of role models and safety concerns of neighborhoods, that prevent AA girls from adopting HEAL practices. For this Phase 1 SBIR project, we propose Mini-ME - an innovative and fun, early childhood obesity prevention program that will help AA girls aged 4-8 years adopt HEAL practices through observational learning and effective role modeling using a smart doll and an animated video series with reinforcement from primary caregivers. Mini-ME will be designed and developed by Benten Technologies, led by Principal Investigator (PI) Tony Ma, in collaboration with Dr. Daheia Barr-Anderson of University of Minnesota (Co-I), Dr. Cotwright of University of Georgia (Co-I), and Tony Hu (Consultant) from the MIT Media Lab. The specific aims of this Phase I project are: 1) Develop a prototype of the Mini-ME program with a smart doll, animated video series, and a mobile app using formative research, initially for overweight/obese AA girls between the ages of 4-8 years old; 2) Conduct a 2-week pilot testing of Mini-ME with 20 overweight/obese AA girls between the ages 4- 8 years and their primary caregiver in a real-world setting to assess feasibility (engagement, usability, and acceptance). Impact: The short-term impact will be the feasibility, acceptance and engagement of AA girls and their primary caregiver with the Mini-ME program, and evaluate feasibility and acceptance of the smart doll and video characters to serve as role models for HEAL behaviors. If successful, this study will demonstrate that the development and implementation of a play and media-based intervention for obesity prevention among children is feasible. For Phase II, we plan to complete the development of the 12-week program, complete the “Imani and Me” video series with additional fun, engaging and educational episodes, and test the effects of the Mini-ME program on increasing knowledge and self-efficacy related to HEAL practices, and improving the adoption of HEAL behaviors i.e., adoption of healthy eating patterns and engagement in PA, among AA girls.

项目概要/摘要 儿童肥胖是一个日益严重的问题，在所有其他族裔群体中，非裔美国人 (AA) 四分之一的 AA 女孩患有肥胖症——即肥胖率。 AA 女孩比其他种族的女孩要高，并且 AA 男孩肥胖也会增加孩子患各种疾病的风险。 慢性生活方式状况，并且与这些状况持续存在的可能性更大有关 研究表明，女孩在 6 岁左右就开始出现肥胖现象，而且确实如此。 预防儿童早期肥胖非常重要，因为这是味觉发展的关键时期 缺乏健康饮食和积极生活（HEAL）是主要原因。 儿童肥胖存在多种障碍，如文化规范、缺乏知识、缺乏角色 社区的模式和安全问题阻碍了 AA 女孩采取 HEAL 做法。 第一阶段 SBIR 项目，我们提出 Mini-ME - 一种创新且有趣的儿童早期肥胖预防方法 该计划将帮助 4-8 岁的 AA 女孩通过观察学习和实践来采用 HEAL 实践 使用智能娃娃和动画视频系列进行有效的角色建模，并得到小学的强化 Mini-ME 将由 Benten Technologies 在首席研究员 (PI) 的领导下设计和开发。 Tony Ma 与明尼苏达大学 (Co-I) 的 Daheia Barr-Anderson 博士、美国明尼苏达大学的 Cotwright 博士合作 佐治亚大学（Co-I）和麻省理工学院媒体实验室的 Tony Hu（顾问）此项目的具体目标。 第一阶段项目有： 1）开发 Mini-ME 程序原型，包括智能娃娃、动画视频系列、 以及一款使用形成性研究的移动应用程序，最初针对 4-8 岁的超重/肥胖 AA 女孩 2) 对 20 名年龄在 4 岁以下的超重/肥胖 AA 女孩进行为期 2 周的 Mini-ME 试点测试 8 年和他们的主要照顾者在现实世界中评估可行性（参与度、可用性和 验收）。 影响：短期影响将是 AA 女孩及其小学的可行性、接受度和参与度 护理人员使用 Mini-ME 程序，评估智能娃娃和视频的可行性和接受度 如果成功的话，这项研究将证明， 开发和实施基于游戏和媒体的干预措施，以预防肥胖 对于第二阶段，我们计划完成为期12周的计划的制定，完成 “伊玛尼和我”视频系列包含更多有趣、引人入胜且具有教育意义的剧集，并测试效果 Mini-ME 计划旨在增加与 HEAL 实践相关的知识和自我效能，并改善 在 AA 女孩中采用 HEAL 行为，即采用健康饮食模式并参与 PA。