High 5 Low Fat

The High 5, Low Fat Program (H5LF) was implemented in collaboration with Parents as Teachers and various St. Louis Parents as Teachers sites. Through nutrition education aimed at empowering parents with the skills to achieve dietary recommendations, H5LF successfully improved the dietary intake of African American parents, as indicated by increased fruit and vegetable intake, decreased fat consumption, increased frequency of low fat eating behaviors, and parental role modeling of dietary behaviors.

Project Staff

Principal Investigator: Debra Haire-Joshu, PhD

Co-Investigators: Wendy Auslander PhD; Ross Brownson, PhD; Kenneth Schechtman, PhD

Project Staff: Cheryl Houston, MS, RD; Susie Nanney, PhD, MPH, RD; Karen Steger-May, MS

External Collaborators: Barb Sander, Tresa McCallie, Ann Babb, Clare Eldredge, Karen Flaven, Nahid Hashimi, Angela Kreuger-Miller, Chris Kulla-Branz, Andrea Kwas, Wanda Moore, Jami Melton, Judith Pickens, Renee Schuster, Carla Scott, Joan Store, Angela Strode  (Parents as Teachers)

Six Graduate Research Assistants

Project Partners

Parents as Teachers; St. Louis City Public Schools, University City Public Schools, Ritenour Public Schools, Jennings Public Schools, Riverview Gardens Public Schools, Hazelwood Public Schools, Ferguson Florissant Public Schools, Wellston Public Schools, Maplewood Richmond Heights Public Schools

Project Dates: 1998-2001

Funding Source

National Institutes of Health

Publications

Haire-Joshu D, Kreuter MK, Holt C, Steger-May K. Estimates of fruit and vegetable intake in childhood and adult dietary behaviors of African American women. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2004 Nov-Dec;36(6):309-14

Eyler AA, Haire-Joshu D, Brownson RC, Nanney MS. Correlates of fat intake among urban, low income African Americans. Am J Health Behav. 2004 Sep-Oct;28(5):410-7. 

Haire-Joshu D, Brownson RC, Nanney MS, Houston C, Steger-May K, Schechtman K, Auslander W. Improving dietary behavior in African Americans: the Parents As Teachers High 5, Low Fat Program. 2003. Prev Med. 36(6):684-91

Tibbs T, Haire-Joshu D, Schechtman KB, Brownson RC, Nanney MS, Houston C, Auslander W. The relationship between parental modeling, eating patterns, and dietary intake among African-American parents. 2001 J Am Diet Assoc. 101(5):535-41. 

Presentations

Nanney, M.S. High 5, Low Fat: A partnership to improve parental modeling of healthy eating behaviors.  Presented at the Born to Learn Conference, 2000