Intro: Nutrition Able aims to teach food scarce Bexar County middle/high school students how to read a nutrition label via lectures at Southside and Southwest ISD. Notably, Southside ISD is a food desert.

Methods: Our team gave lectures and administered a pre-survey. Following the pre-survey, a lecture was given. Afterwards, an identical post-survey was administered. The anonymous survey consisted of 7 multiple-choice questions about calories, macronutrients, calories/serving, macronutrient content, fiber, protein, and diabetes/obesity prevention. We collected demographics at the students’ discretion- height, weight, sex, grade, age, and family history of obesity/diabetes (FH).

Results: To date, we have reached 432 students from 6th-12th grade. There were improvements in pre-/post-survey scores (2.47 vs. 3.31, P<<<.05), median (2 vs. 3), and mode (2 vs. 4). Positive FH predicted higher BMI (23.6 vs. 21.8, P=.003). Those with a positive FH reported their BMI more frequently (OR 1.63, CI 1.0-2.6).Predictors of better pre-survey scores include negative FH (2.65 vs. 2.42, P=.066), male sex (2.62 vs. 2.30, P=.01), and overweight or greater BMI (2.72 vs. 2.33, P=.01). Predictors of larger improvements in pre/post surveys include reporting BMI (0.93 vs. 0.60, P=.058), positive FH (.92 vs. .73, P=.16), and female sex (0.96 vs. 0.71, P=.092) - with large improvements in overweight girls(+1.4), healthy weight girls(+1.2), obese girls(+1.08) and obese boys(+1.0). The only predictor of higher post-survey scores was overweight girls scored better than overweight boys (4.03 vs. 3.1, P=.03).

Conclusion: Nutrition Able improves health literacy. Negative FH, male sex, and overweight/obese BMI are predictors of higher pre-survey scores. Overweight/obese BMI, positive FH and female sex are predictors of higher pre-/post-survey improvement. There were no material predictors of post-survey score. Nutrition Able effectively reaches those in need.

Disclosure

J. Bolte: None.

Funding

University of Texas Health Science Center Community Service Learning Grant

© 2024 by the American Diabetes Association
2024
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