Husky Reads Effectiveness in Increasing Produce Preference and Food Group Identification in Preschool Children

Husky Reads Evaluation: Measuring Changes in Fruit and Vegetable Recognition and Liking

Since 1998, UCONN undergraduate students have volunteered as part of a service- learning course to deliver a program called Husky Reads. Inspired by the nationally accepted American Academy of Pediatrics' program "Reach Out and Read," Husky Reads was first designed for promotion of health, nutrition habits and literacy by reading health-oriented books to young children in pediatric and health clinics. The Husky Reads curriculum now includes a series of 10 lessons designed to introduce preschool-age children to MyPlate while improving fruit and vegetable literacy. Undergraduate students enrolled in the Husky Reads service- learning course at UConn or college students participating in the paid summer internship program deliver the preschool lessons. Each team of 2-3 undergraduate students is assigned 2-3 early care classrooms to visit and deliver Husky Reads lessons to on a weekly basis. This series targets children at an early age because early childhood is a pivotal time to influence the path towards healthy behaviors and away from obesity. The effectiveness of the Husky Reads curriculum on a preschool age child's correct identification and liking of fruits and vegetables has not been established. The proposed evaluation uses a pre-test/post- test control group design with paired data at the child level to explore whether children who participate in Husky Reads have increased odds of correctly identifying the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) "MyPlate" program (MyPlate) and food group concepts and trying or liking select fruits and vegetables.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Childhood Obesity
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Husky Reads Intervention

Detailed Description

Since 1998, University of Connecticut (UCONN) undergraduate students have volunteered as part of a service- learning course to deliver a program called Husky Reads. Inspired by the nationally accepted American Academy of Pediatrics' program "Reach Out and Read," Husky Reads was first designed for promotion of health, nutrition habits and literacy by reading health-oriented books to young children in pediatric and health clinics. The Husky Reads curriculum now includes a series of 10 lessons designed to introduce preschool-age children to MyPlate while improving fruit and vegetable literacy. Each lesson includes reading at least one children's book, an activity or game, and food tasting to complement learning objectives related to MyPlate and fruit/vegetable literacy. Undergraduate students enrolled in the Husky Reads service- learning course at UConn or college students participating in the paid summer internship program deliver the preschool lessons. Each team of 2-3 undergraduate students is assigned 2-3 early care classrooms to visit and deliver Husky Reads lessons to on a weekly basis. This series targets children at an early age because early childhood is a pivotal time to influence the path towards healthy behaviors and away from obesity. Providing food tastings and increasing exposure to foods like fruits and vegetables is especially relevant because food preferences are developed in early childhood. Early childhood is also an important time for introducing healthy behaviors because once obesity is established in childhood; it often tracks through to adulthood and is difficult to reverse through interventions.

The effectiveness of the Husky Reads curriculum on a preschool age child's MyPlate knowledge and correct identification and liking of fruits and vegetables has not been established. A more comprehensive evaluation is needed to establish if the program is effective and contributes to quality improvement efforts. Findings from a prior evaluation suggest the ability of preschoolers to identify blueberries, strawberries, carrots and broccoli increased significantly after participation in one Husky Reads lesson. Although the findings were promising, the evaluation design lacked a control group and relied on a classroom wide assessment with hands raised as a response rather than measuring whether the ability to identify the produce items changed for a given child after participation in Husky Reads. Therefore, a more thorough evaluation of whether Husky Reads helps children learn to identify select fruits and vegetables is still needed. Questions also remain whether Husky Reads increases the odds of a child tasting and/or liking select fruits and vegetables as well as recognition of MyPlate and foods in different food groups. The proposed evaluation uses a pre-test/post- test control group design with paired data at the child level to explore whether children who participate in Husky Reads have increased odds of identifying MyPlate and food group concepts , and correctly identifying,trying or liking select fruits and vegetables.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 400
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Connecticut
    • Farmington, Connecticut, United States, 06030
      • UConn Health

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 2 years to 5 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• child attending center or school based early care with high family enrollment in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP)

Exclusion Criteria:

• child whose parent has signed the "opt out" portion of the notification form.

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: Husky Reads Intervention; The Husky Reads curriculum includes a series of 10 lessons designed to introduce preschool-age children to MyPlate while improving fruit and vegetable literacy. Each lesson includes reading at least one children's book, an activity or game, and sometimes food tasting to complement the learning objectives. Undergraduate students enrolled in the Husky Reads service-learning course at UCONN or college students participating in a paid summer internship deliver the program. Each team of 2-3 students is assigned 2-3 early care classrooms to visit and deliver Husky Reads on a weekly basis.	Behavioral: Husky Reads Intervention; The Husky Reads curriculum now includes a series of 10 lessons designed to introduce preschool-age children to MyPlate while improving fruit and vegetable literacy. Each lesson includes reading at least one children's book, an activity or game, and food tasting to complement learning objectives related to MyPlate and fruit/vegetable literacy. Undergraduate students enrolled in the Husky Reads service- learning course at UConn or college students participating in the paid summer internship program deliver the preschool lessons. Each team of 2-3 undergraduate students is assigned 2-3 early care classrooms to visit and deliver Husky Reads lessons to on a weekly basis.
No Intervention: Wait list Control; Programs on the wait list for Husky Reads, participate in the pre and post intervention testing but do not receive the program.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Identification of MyPlate	Ability to name MyPlate (Larsen et al)	Three week post 10-week intervention
Ability to place foods in MyPlate food groups	Measured by using the Food Group Game, informed by Building a Healthy Me! evaluation survey. (Larsen et al.)	Three week post 10-week intervention
Identification of specified fruits and vegetables	Identification using modified Carraway-Stage protocol	Three week post 10-week intervention
Preference for specified fruits and vegetables	Fruit and vegetable liking as measured by modified Carraway-Stage protocol	Three week post 10-week intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: UConn Health
• Investigators: Study Director: Erin Havens, MPH, UConn Health; Principal Investigator: Ann m Ferris, PhD, UConn Health

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Carraway-Stage V, Spangler H, Borges M, Goodell LS. Evaluation of a pictorial method to assess liking of familiar fruits and vegetables among preschool children. Appetite. 2014 Apr;75:11-20. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2013.12.011. Epub 2013 Dec 21.
• Larsen AL, Liao Y, Alberts J, Huh J, Robertson T, Dunton GF. RE-AIM Analysis of a School-Based Nutrition Education Intervention in Kindergarteners. J Sch Health. 2017 Jan;87(1):36-46. doi: 10.1111/josh.12466.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 1, 2017
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 10, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): May 10, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 7, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 7, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): November 9, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): June 5, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 2, 2025
• Last Verified: June 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: childhood obesity; Pre-school children; fruit and vegetable acceptance; service-learning; pre-school nutrition education
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Nutrition Disorders; Overnutrition; Body Weight; Overweight; Obesity; Pediatric Obesity
• Other Study ID Numbers: 17-069-3; 601305 (Other Grant/Funding Number: CT Department of Social Services/USDA)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED
• IPD Plan Description: This group will share raw data with developer of testing instrument.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No