Healthy Body Awareness: Ats' iis Ya' at' eehgo Baa' a' hwon dzin

Healthy Body Awareness: Ats'íís Yá'át'éehgo Baa' a' hwon dzin

Principal Investigator: Leslie Cunningham-Sabo, Ph.D.
Start and End Dates: 04/01/05– 6/30/06
Sources of Funding:U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program through a sub-award with New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service

Background

Healthy Body Awareness (HBA) is a nutrition and physical activity education program for Navajo elders. It can be adapted for other communities.
Developed by University of New Mexico Prevention Research Center in partnership with the Navajo community, including Navajo Area Agency on Aging (NAAA), Indian Health Service, Navajo Nation’s Special Diabetes Project, and Navajo Council on Aging.
Goal: to design a culturally relevant and sustainable physical activity and nutrition education program for Navajo elders
Funded by USDA FSNEP through New Mexico State University (NMSU), with additional funding provided through Arizona Nutrition Network
Staff from all 5 NAAA regions were trained on HBA curriculum in May 2005

Program

Delivered to elders receiving meals through Congregate Meal Program at Senior Centers by Senior Center staff, with plans to reach homebound elders
12 weeks, 3 lessons per week - 2 nutrition lessons and 1 physical activity lesson
Based on 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, Surgeon General’s recommendations for physical activity, with culturally responsive and age-appropriate content
Lessons consist of mini-talks, learning activities, physical activities, videos produced by NMSU Cooperative Extension Service, food tastings, handouts
Exercise cards depicting safe exercises for elders were developed especially for this project and can be downloaded.
Topics chosen based on USDA FSNEP guidelines, planning partner experiences, and NAAA Senior Centers’ needs

Evaluation

May 2005 trainings – evaluation results from 214 participants from 5 Agencies:

93% ready to teach lessons, 94% thought physical activity was simple enough for elders, 76% thought nutrition education easy enough for elders to understand, 96% thought topics of interest to elders, 53% want follow-up training

Evaluation is built into the curriculum, with measures assessing participants’ nutrition and physical activity knowledge before and after the program, and after each lesson, with a post-lesson session leader reaction form.

For more information about this project, please contact Dr. Leslie Cunningham-Sabo, at (505) 272-4462 or ldcunningham-sabo@salud.unm.edu.