Impacts of a Gamified Nutrition and Physical Activity Curriculum for High Schoolers from Communities with Low Income: Rev It Up!

OBJECTIVE

Evaluate the impacts of an evidence-based, school-based, gamified nutrition education curriculum (Rev It Up!) for high schoolers from communities with low income.

METHODS

Secondary analysis of 2021-2022 New Jersey Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program evaluation data. High schoolers who completed ≥ 8 of 10 lessons and the Food and Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (n = 190) were included. We used paired t tests to evaluate prepost differences among the full sample and explored subgroups of adolescents who indicated room for improvement at baseline.

RESULTS

Only 2 diet behaviors demonstrated improvement in the full sample, but analyses that solely included adolescents capable of behavioral improvement suggested improvements in 8 of the 13 measured behaviors in diet, physical activity, food safety and food resource management. Significant effect sizes ranged from 0.29 to 0.57.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Rev It Up! participants demonstrated significant prepost behavioral changes, especially among subgroup analyses. Future studies could establish generalizability for rural adolescents.