Pilot Evaluation of Youth Chef Academy (YCA)

Pilot Evaluation of Youth Chef Academy: A Plant-based Cooking Program for Urban Middle School Students

This project examined the effectiveness of Youth Chef Academy (YCA), a classroom-based experiential culinary and nutrition literacy curriculum for middle-school students. The primary study hypothesis was that students assigned to YCA would demonstrate greater improvement in F/V and whole grain consumption compared to students in the control group. Eight classrooms in eight public K-8 schools participated in the project. Classrooms were assigned to intervention or control condition in a non-randomized manner. YCA was delivered by project staff to all of the students in the four intervention classrooms. Students completed a survey to assess primary and secondary outcomes at baseline, six-week curriculum completion, and at twelve-week curriculum completion (YCA extended twelve-week curriculum cohort).

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Child; Dietary Modification
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Youth Chef Academy

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 248
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 10 years to 14 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Student in intervention or control classroom

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Youth Chef Academy; Receives intervention	Behavioral: Youth Chef Academy; Nutrition and culinary curriculum delivered in the classroom
No Intervention: Control; Usual classroom curriculum

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in fruit and vegetable consumption	Change in fruit and vegetable consumption calculated from self-reported times per day consuming fruits and vegetables using the 7-item tool from the Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System	Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks
Change in whole grain consumption	Change in whole grain consumption calculated from self-reported times per day consuming whole grains using a revised version of the 8-item tool from the Power of 3 project	Baseline, 6 weeks, 12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: August 1, 2011
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 1, 2012
• Study Completion (Actual): November 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 1, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 3, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): June 4, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): June 4, 2015
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 3, 2015
• Last Verified: June 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: School health
• Other Study ID Numbers: PRJ49IH; 11.336 (Other Identifier: UW-Milwaukee IRB)