VERMONT AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION AND UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT EXTENSION
Annual Report 2016

Program Goal Area: Childhood Obesity

Internet Assisted Obesity Treatment

Harvey, Jean     

The majority of the population is overweight or obese.  This is true in Vermont as well.  High quality treatment programs that are disseminable are urgently needed.

What do Men Really Want?:  A Crowdsourcing Approach to Understand Weight Loss Behavior in Men

Harvey, Jean     

Men are far less likely than women to participate in weight loss interventions and when they do they lose far less weight.  The goal of this study is to determine if men will lose more weight when receiving financial incentives based on weight loss than participating men not receiving incentives.  This project will be conducted at worksites and seeks to target men of lower socioeconomic status.  

Persuasion, dieticians, and sponsors in the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Heiss, Sarah       

The current examined interactions between registered dieticians and the food industry. The goal was to identify the types of messages exchanged between dieticians and food industry representatives and evaluate how these messages help or hinder the respective organizations’ missions. We provide a set of recommendations for how to teach nutritional communication and message discernment to food and diet professionals.

Web-based training in digital imaging to measure fruit and vegetable consumption in schools

Johnson, Rachel               

Accurate state-of-the-art methods are needed to measure children's fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption. Our research team used technology to develop a feasible, reliable and valid method to assess children's FV consumption during school lunch.

Expanding the Impact of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs

Kolodinsky, Jane              

In collaboration with PEER Associates, this work evaluates the USDA Farm to School grant program. Farm to School is an important part of Vermont education and agriculture and understanding its effect will inform better practices in Vermont.

Nationwide Evaluation of USDA Farm to School Grants

Kolodinsky, Jane              

This work tests the hypothesis that offering free samples of a new lunch entrée will increase participation in the National School Lunch Program.

Innovative Community Supported Agriculture Cost-Offset Intervention to Prevent Childhood Obesity

Kolodinsky, Jane              

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) with a cost-offset is an innovative approach to increasing consumer access to and consumption of fresh produce, thereby lowering obesity prevalence.

Food Recall and Diet Analysis Using a Diet Tracking Smartphone App with Image Capture

Pintauro, Stephen          

The MyEnergyBalance smartphone app and website is designed to assist students and the general public with monitoring and analyzing the food intake and physical activity. 

Incentivizing Physical Activity Using Gamification, a Pilot Study

Pope, Lizzy         

We are incentivizing Vermont high school students to be more active and working with a Vermont small business on this project.