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Browsing by Author "Pelletier, Jennifer"

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    Collaborative Partnerships for Childhood Obesity Prevention: Trends and Correlates Nationally and a Case Study in Minnesota
    (2016-04) Pelletier, Jennifer
    Obesity affects nearly one in five children in the United States and costs billions of dollars to manage and treat. National advisors and funding agencies are increasingly encouraging multiple sectors of society to work together on childhood obesity prevention, yet the extent to which states are adopting and succeeding with this approach is unknown. In this dissertation, I address this gap in the literature using national surveillance data and a mixed methods case study in Minnesota. In study 1, I examined secular trends and state-level political, social, and economic conditions associated with collaboration on school nutrition and physical education (PE) activities nationally. Collaboration increased between 2000 and 2006 and decreased or stabilized between 2006 and 2012. The number of organizational collaborators in 2012 was higher in states with higher childhood obesity prevalence, higher poverty, higher public health funding, and a state-level PE coordinator. In study 2, I examined the prevalence of evidence-based state policies on competitive foods and PE between 2006 and 2012. Findings from generalized linear models indicate that strong state policies were unrelated to measures of collaboration and significantly positively associated with childhood obesity and state-level measures of socioeconomic disadvantage in 2012. In study 3, I used mixed methods to develop a theoretically informed process to identify and describe the roles of key stakeholders in a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) partnership in Minnesota. The Minnesota partnership was successful in implementing SRTS programs in nearly 200 communities and advocating for policy change to expand and institutionalize SRTS in the state. Findings indicate that contributors to success of sophisticated partnerships may differ across multiple geographic levels and core partnership functions. Overall, the findings from this dissertation suggest that collaborative partnerships are common and under some circumstances, such as SRTS in Minnesota, may contribute to adoption and/or implementation of policies to prevent childhood obesity.
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    STORE Study Data Collection Tools
    (2014-2017) Laska, Melissa; Caspi, Caitlin; Harnack, Lisa; Erickson, Darin; Pelletier, Jennifer;
    Improving access to healthy food has been identified by the Institute of Medicine, CDC and other national and scientific authorities as a strategy for local governments to help prevent obesity. In the fall of 2014, the city of Minneapolis revised an ordinance requiring all stores with grocery licenses to carry a wide array of healthy foods and beverages in order to better align with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and stocking requirements for WIC (Women, Infants and Children) program vendors. Minneapolis was the first and to date is one of the only cities in the U.S. to have a policy of this kind in place. This type of policy action may have an important impact on food access, particularly in under-served neighborhoods and small food stores that do not currently stock these types of items. This policy is expected to have the greatest impact on small-scale food retailers, such as corner stores and convenience stores, as well as non-traditional food retailers, such as gas-marts, dollar stores, and pharmacies. The purpose of the STaple foods ORdinance Evaluation (STORE) study was to, therefore, evaluate the impact of this local policy change (i.e., the Minneapolis Staple Foods Ordinance). In this study, the impact of the Minneapolis Staple Foods Ordinance was evaluated by assessing objectively measured changes in: a) food environments among small and non-traditional urban food stores, including availability, promotion, advertising, quality, price, and placement of both healthy and unhealthy foods and beverages; b) nutritional quality of consumer purchases at small and non-traditional food stores, including assessment of energy density and calories via customer intercept interviews and direct observation of purchases; and c) home food environments, including availability of healthy and unhealthy foods/beverages and an overall home food obesogenicity score among households that frequently shop at small- to mid-sized food stores. These changes were assessed pre-policy implementation as well as 4-, 12- and 24-months post-policy implementation in Minneapolis and St. Paul (the control community) from 2014 to 2017. Data collected in 2014, during the pre-policy implementation phase, were in the form of objective store assessments, customer intercept interviews, retailer (store owner/manager) interviews, and home visits with customers who frequently shopped in small or non-traditional food stores. Data collected at home visits were interviews, surveys, and dietary assessments, including the Home Food Inventory (Fulkerson et al, IJBNPA, 2008 Nov 4:5: 55).