More than 4700 adolescents from 31 metropolitan middle and high schools in Minnesota completed surveys about their eating habits as part of Project EAT-I. Baseline surveys and anthropometric measurements were completed in school classrooms during the 1998-1999 school year. In addition, a similar telephone questionnaire was administered to 902 parents of adolescent participants. Details of the research design are described below and published manuscripts from Project EAT-I are posted on the Publications page.
Project EAT I addressed four central research questions:
Are adolescents eating in accordance with the Healthy People recommendations?
Which subgroups of adolescents are at greatest risk for not meeting these objectives and need to be targeted for interventions?
What are the direct and indirect overall contributions of socioenvironmental, personal, and behavioral factors to the explained variance in dietary intake and Body Mass Index?
What specific measures from within the socio-environmental, personal, and behavioral factors are associated with dietary intake and Body Mass Index among adolescents?
Qualitative data collected from focus groups were analyzed by the constant comparative method. Quantitative data collected from survey participants were analyzed by a variety of statistical methods according to whether the data were categorical or continuous and according to the purpose of the analysis. For details please see the individual publications from Project EAT.
Research Design
To address the Project EAT I objectives data were collected in three phases:
Focus groups with 141 adolescents
Surveys and anthropometric measurements of 4,746 adolescents
Telephone interviews with 902 parents
Focus groups were conducted with 141 adolescents to insure all relevant factors effecting their eating and physical activity behaviors would be included in the model and survey.
Surveys were administered by trained research staff to middle and high school students in the Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Osseo school districts in Minnesota. Students completed a food frequency questionnaire and the Project EAT Student Survey (n=4,746). The Project EAT Student Survey, developed by the principal investigator, Dr. Neumark-Sztainer, and research team includes questions on self-reported height and weight, potential correlates of dietary intake, and weight control behaviors. For more details about the survey please contact us.
After completion of the surveys, height and weight measurements were collected from students privately using a standardized protocol.
A similar telephone questionnaire focusing on socioenvironmental factors was administered to randomly selected parents (n=902) of students who completed the survey. Random selection was done after stratifying students by ethnicity in order to assure adequate representation from each group. Trained staff at the Data Collection and Support Services or Wilder Research Center administered all questionnaires.
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Project EAT: Eating Among Teens
To address the Project EAT I objectives data were collected in three phases: