Using School Staff Members to Implement a Childhood Obesity Prevention Intervention in Low-Income School Districts: the Massachusetts Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration (MA-CORD Project), 2012–2014
ORIGINAL RESEARCH — Volume 14 — January 12, 2017
PEER REVIEWED
This diagram illustrates how the MA-CORD intervention occurred over a 2-year period and was evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative measures collected at varying times. Intervention activities occurred from fall 2012 to spring 2014 and consisted of teacher training, distribution of physical activity equipment, provision of classroom lessons for 5,144 students in 4th through 7th grade, a media competition, and various schoolwide wellness events. At baseline in fall 2012, MA-CORD readiness surveys were collected from 53 teachers and nurses and 23 school leaders. End-of-year curriculum surveys were collected from 58 teachers in summer 2013 and from 46 teachers in summer 2014. In-depth interviews of 23 school staff members were conducted during winter 2014 and spring 2014. Data were synthesized to interpret study observations during the implementation of MA-CORD.
Figure 1. MA-CORD school sector implementation data used in a convergent parallel mixed methods design. The MA-CORD intervention occurred over a 2-year period and was evaluated using both quantitative and qualitative measures.
Figure 2. MA-CORD Implementation Fidelity: Curriculum lessons taught by 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th grade school teachers, Massachusetts, 2012–2014. Using end-of-year surveys, teachers reported the number of lessons taught from the MA-CORD curricula, which were adapted from “Eat Well and Keep Moving” and “Planet Health” (Appendix A).
| Year | Community 1 | Community 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Mean (Standard Deviation) | ||
| 1 | 5.8 (2.7) | 3.6 (2.5) |
| 2 | 5.2 (3.0) | 4.5 (2.8) |
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