Publications by authors named "Carrie D Heitzler"
Objective: To examine the relationship between the home environment and biomarkers associated with the cardiovascular and metabolic risks in adolescents.
Methods: Three hundred fifty-eight adolescents (185 males and 173 females) living in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, Minnesota, between the ages of 10-17 years agreed to participate. Data were collected from August 2006 through March 2008.
Objective: To explore the relationship between social influences, self-efficacy, enjoyment, and barriers and physical activity.
Methods: Structural equation modeling examined relationships between parent and peer support, parent physical activity, individual perceptions, and objectively measured physical activity using accelerometers among a sample of youth aged 10-17 years (N = 720).
Results: Peer support, parent physical activity, and perceived barriers were directly related to youth activity.
Background: The purpose of this research is to evaluate 2 methods of assessing foods available on school à la carte lines for schools' ability to assess the proportion of foods that are healthful options.
Methods: This observational study used data collected at 38 middle schools, October 2006-May 2007. An inventory method was used to collect detailed information of items available on each school's à la carte line, followed by a simplified checklist form.
Background: The McGuire hierarchy-of-effects (HOE) model, used extensively in mass-media interventions to describe the mechanisms for understanding effects, has not been tested in physical activity campaigns.
Design: Data collected at baseline (2002) and follow-up (2003) surveys in the VERB evaluation were used in structural equation modeling to test pathways and hierarchies of campaign effects.
Setting/participants: Population-based cohort of youth aged 9-13 years (N=2364) for whom complete baseline and follow-up data were available.
Evaluation was an integral part of the VERB campaign. This paper describes the array of evaluation methods used to support the development, implementation, and assessment of campaign activities. The evaluation of VERB consisted of formative, process, and outcome evaluations and involved both qualitative and quantitative methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGiven the abundance of advertising and media that children and adolescents are exposed to today, it is increasingly important to incorporate nontraditional channels and venues in strategies designed to reach them. One such channel that the CDC's VERB campaign employed was experiential marketing, which is defined here as a live event or experience that gives the target audience the opportunity to see a product and experience it for themselves. Experiential marketing and the tactics that the VERB campaign used to reach children aged 9-13 years (tweens) with health messages about physical activity are described, including a discussion about how other public health campaigns might use experiential marketing and other commercial marketing techniques to reach the public with public health messages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The study evaluated the reliability and validity of the physical activity questions in the Youth Media Campaign Longitudinal Survey (YMCLS), a nationally representative survey of 9- to 13-yr-old youth.
Methods: The participants were 192 youth aged 9-13 yr (93 males and 99 females) in grades 4-8 from eight schools in a large, ethnically diverse school district. Participants completed two YMCLS phone interviews, which were administered 1 wk apart by trained interviewers.
Background: Amid concern for the consequences of physical inactivity among children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started a campaign using commercial marketing methods to promote physical activity to children.
Design: Longitudinal study using a telephone survey to assess physical activity behaviors and attitudes at baseline and for 2 years of follow-up. Relationships of campaign awareness to behavioral and psychosocial effects were analyzed with use of propensity scoring.
Objectives: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children over age 2 years spend < or = 2 hours per day with screen media, because excessive viewing has been linked to a plethora of physical, academic, and behavioral problems. The primary goal of this study was to qualitatively explore how a recommendation to limit television viewing might be received and responded to by a diverse sample of parents and their school-age children.
Methods: The study collected background data about media use, gathered a household media inventory, and conducted in-depth individual and small group interviews with 180 parents and children ages 6 to 13 years old.
Background: Physical activity (PA) is critical for children's normal growth and development. The purpose of this study was to assess potential correlates of physical activity in a US national sample of youth aged 9-13 years.
Methods: A nationally representative telephone survey of parent-child pairs was conducted from April through June 2002.
Objective: To determine the effects of a mass media campaign on the levels of physical activity among children 9 to 13 years of age.
Design: A prospective, longitudinal, quasi-experimental design was used. A baseline survey was conducted in April to June 2002, before the launch of VERB advertising.