JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Objective:

Describe challenges and facilitators to incorporating technology into the iCook-4-H intervention program. Design: Randomized control trial. Setting: Community-based participatory childhood obesity prevention program. Participants: 288 dyads; youth (9.4±0.7 years old) and adult primary meal preparers (39.0±8 years). Intervention(s): Six in-person sessions to increase families cooking, eating and playing together with online between-session technology components of curriculum. Main Outcome Measure(s): Baseline, 4, 12, and 24-month assessments included measured anthropometrics for youth and online surveys about camera and website skill and use for dyads. Session leaders and participants completed open-ended process evaluations after each session about technology components. Analysis: Chi Square analysis computed for gender differences in technology variables. Relationships between video posting frequency and outcomes of interest (cooking frequency, self-efficacy and skills; dietary intake; and body mass index [BMI]) were tested with Spearman correlations. Process evaluations and open-ended survey responses were thematically analyzed for beneficial and inhibiting factors including technology components in the curriculum.

Results:

Only 78.6% of youth and 68.3% of adults reported always being comfortable accessing the internet post-intervention. Male youth reported being more comfortable with technology tasks than females (p< 0.05). Youth who posted more videos had higher cooking skills at 4-months post-intervention (r=0.189, p=0.05). Barriers to website usage reported most frequently by youth included lack of accessibility, remembering, interactivity, motivation, time, and lack of parental encouragement. Conclusions and Implications: Incorporating technology supports, like cameras and websites, into youth programs may help produce improved outcomes. Identifying barriers to and patterns of technology usage need to be considered when developing future youth health-promotion interventions.