DID YOU KNOW? NEW STUDY EXAMINE PATTERNS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN GIRLS.

Approximately two-thirds of African American women are overweight or obese, which has become a huge contributor to higher rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension for this population. Disturbingly, African American girls are showing a similar trend of increased obesity and associated health problems. Since there is little information on what influences the eating and activity behaviors of African American girls, these patterns were investigated to aid in targeting and planning future investigations in this population.

The findings behind this investigation are demonstrated in “Development and Implementation of a Visual Card-sorting Technique for Assessing Food and Activity Preferences and Patterns in African American Girls” in the November 2003 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

The results revealed that high-sugar drinks and high-fat foods were the most popular and frequently consumed foods among these 8 to 10 year olds.

Sarah Adkins, M.P.H., R.D., of the Cancer Prevention and Nutrition Section of the California Department of Health Services and a contributing author of this article, commented, “This was an exciting project because it applied a new, engaging method of data collection.” When asked what key outcomes she and her co-authors anticipated from this study, Adkins replied, “We were testing the feasibility of using this new card sort to collect data from the girls and also trying to determine their preferences and frequency for eating foods and doing activities to help develop our program.” As a result of this research, the valuable data collected will be useful for further study of this subject matter.

To access the full length article, please use this link; or use this citation to locate the article: J Am Diet Assoc. 2003; 103:1473-1479; or e-mail Adkins directly at sadkins@dhs.ca.gov.

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