Perceptions of Food Intake, Physical Activity, and Obesity Among African-American Children in the Lower Mississippi Delta

Purpose. To explore the nutrition and physical activity perceptions of children for planning a healthy weight curriculum to address childhood obesity in African-American children living in the Lower Mississippi Delta (LMD). Design. Six children's focus group sessions. Setting. Two Louisiana parishes in the LMD. Subjects. Seventy 8- to 13-year-old African-American children, 46 (66%) females and 24 (44%) males, participated in the focus group sessions. Measures. Interview questions were based on personal and environmental determinants and content and strategies for a healthy lifestyle program for children. Analysis. Focus group discussions were audio recorded and transcribed, observer recorded, and analyzed to identify recurring trends and patterns among focus groups. Content analysis consisted of coding focus group transcripts for recurrent themes and review of data by an independent reviewer to confirm the themes. Results. Emerging themes were categorized as healthy lifestyle opinions within the social cognitive theory constructs of personal and environmental determinants and curriculum content. Conclusion. LMD youth recognized a healthy eating pattern and that overweight and obesity result from poor eating habits and physical inactivity. Children's food intake pattern did not reflect this understanding, suggesting a need for culturally tailoring an intervention to impact the poor food intake and physical inactivity in two low-income African-American Delta communities.