CHANGING THE CULTURE OF HEALTH: CREATING AND TESTING AN EVIDENCE-BASED WELLNESS PROGRAM FOR DIVERSE HEAD START CENTERS USING AN INTEGRATED RESEARCH AND EDUCATION APPROACH

The goal of this proposal is to improve the health and well-being of early childcare education (ECE) providers by developing, implementing, and evaluating an integrated workplace wellness randomized controlled trial (RCT) at diverse Head Start centers (research), the nation's largest federal early childhood program. The RCT will be designed, implemented, and evaluated by MS and PhD nutrition graduate students in collaboration with and supervised by PIs through a novel applied course (education). This study meets A1344's program goals, responding to needs of childcare providers, a low-income population with wide-ranging health disparities, to create sustainable behavior changes, leading to a healthier, more self-sufficient workforce. The proposal development was made possible by a strong collaboration between Tufts University and the National Head Start Association.The following objectives address opportunities and barriers to improve the childcare healthy eating environment and to train future nutrition and agriculture professionals.To develop, deliver, and evaluate an innovative, graduate-level (MS and PhD) trainee course, "Applied Implementation Research in Nutrition and Agriculture Interventions: Design, Delivery, and Assessment," with an experiential learning component to train nutrition and agriculture policy students in applied research.To develop a workplace wellness trial for diverse Head Start centers informed by a national needs assessment and in collaboration with graduate-level trainees that will identify the factors that influence childcare providers' health and weight management behaviors and engagement in worksite wellness and health promotion services.To implement and evaluate the impact of a workplace wellness trial at diverse Head Start centers, in collaboration with graduate-level trainees, on childcare providers' weight status and cardiometabolic risk factors, as well as to assess and model the potential cost savings associated with changes in absenteeism and diet-related chronic disease conditions compared to controls (intervention waitlist).