Statewide Dissemination, Adoption, and Implementation of the SHAPES Intervention Via Online Professional Development to Promote Children's Physical Activity in Early Care and Education Programs.

Few evidence-based obesity interventions have been disseminated in early care and education (ECE) settings. This study describes Go SHAPES: the statewide dissemination of the Study of Health and Activity in Preschool Environments (SHAPES) intervention via online professional development, its classroom implementation, and factors associated with its implementation in ECE. We recruited ECE teachers through professional conferences to participate in online professional development with ongoing technical assistance support to implement SHAPES in their classrooms.

Longitudinal Change in Physical Activity in Children 6 to 36 Months of Age.

Objective: To describe the developmental pattern for physical activity (PA) in children 6-36 months of age and to identify factors that are longitudinally associated with PA as children transition from infancy to preschool age.

Study Design: The study employed a prospective longitudinal design with baseline data collected when children were approximately 6 months of age. Mothers and infants (n = 124) were recruited through community and educational settings in South Carolina.

Constructs from the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research associated with church enrollment and intervention adoption in a national implementation study of a faith-based organizational change intervention.

Background: Organizational adoption is a key but understudied step in translating evidence-based interventions into practice. The purpose of this study was to report recruitment strategies and factors associated with church enrollment and intervention adoption in a national implementation study of the Faith, Activity, and Nutrition (FAN) program.

Methods: We worked with partners using multiple strategies to disseminate intervention availability.

A Comprehensive Planning Framework for Designing Effective Physical Activity Interventions in Youth.

Background: Effective physical activity (PA) interventions are needed to counter the insufficient and declining levels of PA in youth. These require an updated, comprehensive planning framework that consolidates recent decades of progress in promoting PA in young children, children, and adolescents. Effective PA interventions require program planning and conceptual model development that target a coordinated and multilevel set of age-specific PA determinants.

Determinants of Change in Physical Activity in Children during the Transition from Elementary to High School.

Introduction: Effective public health interventions targeting factors that influence physical activity are urgently needed to reduce the age-related decline in physical activity in youth. The purpose of this study was to identify associations between physical activity and a set of potential influences on physical activity in children as they transition from elementary to high school.

Methods: Participants were 951 children from South Carolina school districts who completed outcome and independent variable measures on at least two time points from the 5th to 11th grades in 2010-2017.

Association of physical activity, sedentary behavior, diet quality with adiposity: a longitudinal analysis in children categorized by baseline weight status.

Background/objectives: Childhood obesity rates have increased in recent years. The effectiveness of future public health interventions to reduce childhood obesity will be enhanced by a better understanding of behavioral factors that influence adiposity in children as they transition from childhood to adolescence. The purpose of this study was to examine whether initial weight status modifies the longitudinal associations of physical activity, sedentary behavior, and diet quality with changes in adiposity over time.

Understanding Commitment of Local Food Banks, Faith-Based Organizations, and Schools to Provide Nongovernment Food Programs.

Background: Nongovernment food assistance is typically provided to families by faith-based organizations, schools, and food banks. Community organizations appear to be strongly committed to these programs, but little is known about the basis for this commitment.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the values and identities of community organizations to understand the reasons for their commitment to providing nongovernment food assistance.

Longitudinal changes in domains of physical activity during the transition from elementary school to high school in the U.S.

Objectives: To describe patterns of age-related change in self-reported physical activity domains within a heterogeneous sample of boys and girls in the U.S. transitioning from elementary to high school.

A process for converting an in-person training to increase church capacity to implement physical activity and healthy eating practices and policies to an online format.

The implementation of evidence-based public health programs into practice is critical for improving health, but trainings for organizational change agents are often not scalable. To describe the process of converting a training that targets faith-based organizational capacity development from an in-person to an online format. We engaged in an iterative process to convert the training delivery mode from in-person to online that included assessing stakeholder support, consulting the literature on best practices, seeking a design team, consolidating content, designing engaging lessons, and building an online site.

A Summary of One Research Team's Contributions to Understanding Physical Activity Behavior in Children and Youth.

Schools are well-positioned to provide physical activity opportunities to help youth achieve the recommended 60 or more daily minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. The Children's Physical Activity Research Group (CPARG) at the University of South Carolina has focused on understanding physical activity in school-aged youth for 30+ years. The purpose of this article was to critically review (CPARG) contributions to the field in school settings and school-age youth.

Influence of implementation strategies on implementation outcomes in a statewide dissemination of Faith, Activity, and Nutrition (FAN).

Faith-based organizations are promising settings for implementation science because they can reach populations bearing a disproportionate burden of chronic disease. This study examined how implementation strategies influenced implementation outcomes in Faith, Activity, and Nutrition (FAN) statewide dissemination. Ninety-three (9%) of 985 invited churches enrolled; 91 (98%) and 83 (89%) completed baseline and 12-month assessments.

The Faith, Activity, and Nutrition (FAN) dissemination and implementation study: changes in and maintenance of organizational practices over 24 months in a statewide initiative.

Background: Few studies have examined the impact of ecological health promotion interventions on organizational practices over time, especially in faith-based settings. This statewide dissemination and implementation study examined change in organizational practices and their predictors across a 24-month period, as well as maintenance of change.

Methods: Using a pre-post quasi-experimental design, church coordinators from 92 United Methodist Churches in South Carolina (42% predominantly African American congregations) completed surveys at baseline, and immediate, 12-, and 24-months post-training regarding physical activity (PA) and healthy eating (HE) organizational practices consistent with the Faith, Activity, and Nutrition (FAN) program (opportunities, policies, pastor support, messages) and possible predictors.

Longitudinal association of biological maturation with physical activity behaviors in girls transitioning from 5th to 7th grade.

Introduction: This longitudinal study determined if social cognitive variables influence physical activity in girls stratified on the basis of maturity status.

Methods: Participants attended South Carolina public schools (Mage in 5th grade = 11.1 years) and included a cohort of 529 girls who provided physical activity data in the 5th grade and in 6th and/or 7th grade.

Patterns of age-related change in physical activity during the transition from elementary to high school.

This study was designed: 1) to describe patterns of age-related change in total and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in children as they transitioned from elementary school to high school, and 2) to determine if those patterns differed across demographic sub-groups formed on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, parent education (socioeconomic status), and urbanicity. A cohort of children (analysis sample, N = 951) was comprised of students drawn from two public school districts in South Carolina. Physical activity was measured by accelerometry on at least two and up to five occasions between 2010 and 2017.

Operationalizing and Testing the Concept of a Physical Activity Desert.

Background: The prevalence of childhood obesity is higher in economically and socially deprived areas. Higher levels of physical activity reduce the risk of excessive weight gain in youth, and research has focused on environmental factors associated with children's physical activity, though the term "physical activity desert" has not come into wide use.

Methods: This exploratory study operationalized the term "physical activity desert" and tested the hypothesis that children living in physical activity deserts would be less physically active than children who do not.

Pathways of influences leading to adoption of the Faith, Activity and Nutrition (FAN) program in a statewide initiative.

RE-AIM (Reach, effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) and CFIR (Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research) are complementary frameworks guiding research on dissemination and implementation of evidence-based interventions and factors influencing this process. Faith, Activity, and Nutrition (FAN) is an evidence-based program that increased physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake in faith-based settings. The aims of this adoption study were to quantify state-wide church level adoption rates and congregant reach of FAN in accordance with RE-AIM guidelines, and to explore the association of CFIR-derived constructs of the church inner setting and pastor characteristics with FAN adoption.

Associations between three measures of physical activity and selected influences on physical activity in youth transitioning from elementary to middle school.

Measurement of physical activity is challenging, and objective and subjective methods can be used. The purposes of this study were to apply structural equation modeling in: 1) examining the associations between three distinct measures of physical activity and three factors that are often found to be correlated to physical activity in children, and 2) examining the associations of the combination of three measures with the same correlates in a cohort of youth followed from 5th to 7th grade. A total of 409 children (45% boys) had complete physical activity data derived from accelerometers, self-report by youth, and proxy-report by parents.

Program Implementation and Church Members' Health Behaviors in a Countywide Study of the Faith, Activity, and Nutrition Program.

Implementation research of health programs in faith-based organizations is lacking. The Faith, Activity, and Nutrition (FAN) program helps churches improve physical activity and fruit and vegetable behaviors of members. This study examined associations between implementation of FAN intervention components and church members' physical activity, fruit and vegetable behaviors, and self-efficacy for improving these behaviors.

Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Interventions in Faith-Based Settings: A Systematic Review Using the Reach, Effectiveness/Efficacy, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance Framework.

Context: Faith-based health interventions may improve obesity-related health behaviors, including healthy eating and physical activity. However, the generalizability of results and comprehensiveness of reporting for critical design elements sufficient for large-scale implementation and broad public health impact are unclear. This review assesses the degree to which faith-based healthy eating and physical activity programs report intervention elements using the reach, effectiveness/efficacy, adoption, implementation, maintenance framework.

Implementation Monitoring of a Promotora-Led, Home-Based Obesity Prevention Pilot Study With Latino Preschool Children and Their Mothers.

Background: Latino preschool children have higher rates of obesity than children from other racial/ethnic backgrounds. Few effective, culturally-tailored obesity prevention interventions exist that have focused on Latino preschool children, and even fewer have published results of the process evaluation. The purpose of this paper was to monitor reach, fidelity, and completeness of implementation to determine whether ANDALE, a promising -led, home-based pilot study to prevent obesity in Latino preschool children, was implemented as planned.

Personal, Social, and Environmental Influences on Physical Activity in Groups of Children As Defined by Different Physical Activity Patterns.

Background: Interventions promoting physical activity (PA) in youth have had limited success, in part because studies with methodological challenges have yielded an incomplete understanding of personal, social, and environmental influences on PA. This study described changes in these factors for subgroups of youth with initially high PA that decreased (Active-Decline) compared with children with initially low PA that decreased (Inactive-Decline) from fifth to ninth grades.

Methods: Observational, prospective cohort design.

The Faith, Activity, and Nutrition (FAN) Dissemination and Implementation Study: 24-Month Organizational Maintenance in a Countywide Initiative.

Despite the important role that faith-based organizations can play in eliminating health disparities, few studies have focused on organizational change and maintenance of interventions in this setting, making their long-term impact unknown. This study reports 24-month maintenance of the Faith, Activity, and Nutrition (FAN) program in a southeastern county. Previously reported findings of reach, adoption, implementation, and effectiveness are also summarized.

Predictors of implementation in the Faith, Activity, and Nutrition dissemination and implementation study: application of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) in a statewide initiative.

Faith-based organizations, with broad reach and trust, are well-positioned to promote health. The purpose of the study was to examine 12-month implementation and its predictors in the statewide Faith, Activity, and Nutrition (FAN) dissemination and implementation (D&I) study. Churches (n = 93; 42% predominantly African American) in the [South Carolina] Conference of the United Methodist Church trained by Community Health Advisors participated in the study.

Longitudinal Associations Between Psychosocial, Home, and Neighborhood Factors and Children's Physical Activity.

Background: Physical activity (PA) provides important health benefits to children, and a large percentage of children's PA occurs at home. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between psychosocial, home, and neighborhood environmental factors and children's reported PA at home and in the neighborhood, during the transition from elementary to high school.

Methods: A total of 555 participants (44% boys) were recruited in grade 5 and followed through grades 6, 7, and 9.