Childhood Obesity Grant - Residency Project Descriptions

Through a partnership with MetLife Foundation, Americans In Motion—Healthy Interventions (AIM-HI) has awarded grants of $10,000-$30,000 to family medicine residency programs to develop family-centered, community projects designed to reduce childhood obesity and promote fitness. The AAFP defines fitness as physical activity, healthy eating and emotional well-being for the entire family. The following residencies were awarded funding through this grant:

The residents from Drexel University College of Medicine and Hahnemann University Hospital will begin a project called “Move It with Mommy & Me,” with a goal of decreasing the number of children who are obese by educating children and their parents and promoting fitness and healthy eating. They will provide a one-hour session per month to children and their families for twelve months, which will educate children and their families on nutrition and fitness.

Residents at IU Health – Ball Memorial Hospital will do a project called “Home for Supper: Creating Family Mealtimes that Sustain Mind, Body, and Spirit” with a goal of addressing childhood obesity in the community through a systems approach that recognizes the interplay between the healthcare system, parents, and children. They seek to reach their goal by enhancing the residency curriculum to help providers understand issues surrounding childhood obesity, conducting a community intervention in an underserved area to provide knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary to promote healthy social and physical lifestyles, and sharing the results of their evaluation of the project with the greater Family Medicine and medical community.

The residents at Loma Linda University have proposed a project called “Using Nutrition Prescriptions and Promotores to Combat Childhood Obesity,” with a goal of contributing to reversing the ongoing epidemic of childhood obesity in the Inland Empire area of Southern California. Their three objectives are to implement and document the effectiveness of a sustainable clinic-based intervention to prevent childhood obesity among children one to four years old, to improve family medicine residents’ knowledge, attitudes, and skills in screening, diagnosing, and treating children one to four years old at risk of developing obesity, and to assess the effectiveness of a focused, customized written nutrition prescription that clearly delineates dietary changes for families of obese and/or overweight children ages one to four.

Residents at Lynchburg Family Medicine Residency will begin a project called “Training Residents in Modifying (TRIM) Lifestyle,” with a goal of training primary care physicians to provide intensive interventions to promote a healthy lifestyle for overweight and obese children and their families. They will seek to identify overweight and obese children in their clinic, incorporate intensive education about the 5-3-2-1-0 Healthy Lifestyle into monthly office visits, and develop competency in family medicine residents to identify and manage overweight and obese children and their families.

Residents at Northridge Family Medicine Residency have proposed a project called “C.H.A.N.G.E.” or “Creating Healthy Attitudes About Nutrition/Fitness Through Guidance and Education,” with a goal of raising awareness and increasing knowledge about healthy nutrition and fitness in 8th grade students and their parents in order to reduce childhood obesity. The residents will work with 8th grade students four times during the year and do an educational presentation at a school assembly. They will also begin an intervention and prevention program to help parents create a healthy food and fitness environment at home.

Residents at Underwood Memorial Hospital will begin a project called “Healthy Habits,” with a goal of improving the knowledge, skills, and confidence in patients and parents regarding fitness that will allow them to make good choices for themselves and their families. They seek to achieve this goal by developing a program bringing together Healthy Habits and AIM-HI for 12 monthly group workshops focusing on motivational interviewing and addressing the importance of fitness, diet, physical activity, and emotional well-being in relation to childhood obesity prevention. In addition, they will hold a Healthy Habits Community Health Fair to reach children, parents, and families with information about health and fitness.

Residents at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have proposed a project called “B-M-I” or “Better My Identity,” with a goal of encouraging a wholesome lifestyle, happy outlook, and healthy self-image for school aged pediatric patients. They will offer health education classes for students and their parents incorporating a nutritionist, a cooking demonstration, group physical activities, and social and mental wellness activities.

Residents at Waco Family Medicine Residency will conduct a project called “Fit and Healthy Families: leading the community to healthy behaviors through family group medical visits,” with a goal of enabling community families to become healthier and more physically active through group medical visits with interactive teaching. They will teach motivational interviewing skills to residents and faculty and conduct group medical visits where they will calculate BMI, assess pediatric patients and their parents, demonstrate healthy cooking, participate in fun activities, and examine individual and family emotional health.

Residents at York Hospital Family Medicine Residency have proposed a project called “Get Fit with Your Doc,” with a goal of decreasing the incidence of childhood obesity in a targeted neighborhood of York City, PA. They will conduct monthly “Get Fit with Your Doc” activities incorporating the AIM-HI Fitness prescription, Ready, Set, FIT!, a “Walk/Exercise with the doc” program, and trips to a local farmer’s market.