Crawford, P. B., Gosliner, W., Strode, P., Samuels, S. E., Burnett, C., Craypo, L., et al. (2004). Walking the talk: Fit WIC wellness programs improve self-efficacy in pediatric obesity prevention counseling. American Journal of Public Health, 94: 1480-1485.
Purpose: Six sites of the California Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) participated in a staff wellness pilot intervention designed to improve staff self-efficacy in counseling WIC clients about childhood obesity.
Methods and Participants: A pre-post test design with intervention and control groups was used, with outcome measures including staff perceptions of the intervention?s effects on the workplace environment, their personal habits and health beliefs, and their counseling self-efficacy. A total of 51 staff members completed surveys, and most were WIC paraprofessionals.
Wellness programs implemented at the intervention sites included healthy brown bag lunches, healthy food potlucks, water drinking challenges, lunchtime walking groups, step challenges, and new on-site exercise equipment.
Results: Intervention site staff were more likely to report that the workplace environment supported their efforts to make healthy food choices, be physically active, make positive changes in counseling parents about their children's weight, and feel more comfortable in encouraging WIC clients to do physical activities with their children.
Conclusion: Staff commented that the program has helped them to improve their personal health promotion behavior and to share these messages with their clients.
Comment: This study shows that as staff gained confidence in their own health promotion behaviors, they are more effective in communicating these health promotion messages to the WIC clients. Such model interventions can be translated into developing similar programs for persons with disabilities, such as persons with developmental disabilities living in group homes, for example.
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