Impacts of a Gamified Nutrition and Physical Activity Curriculum for High Schoolers from Communities with Low Income:...

Evaluate the impacts of an evidence-based, school-based, gamified nutrition education curriculum (Rev It Up!) for high schoolers from communities with low income.

Secondary analysis of 2021-2022 New Jersey Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program evaluation data. High schoolers who completed ≥ 8 of 10 lessons and the Food and Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (n = 190) were included. We used paired t tests to evaluate prepost differences among the full sample and explored subgroups of adolescents who indicated room for improvement at baseline.

Only 2 diet behaviors demonstrated improvement in the full sample, but analyses that solely included adolescents capable of behavioral improvement suggested improvements in 8 of the 13 measured behaviors in diet, physical activity, food safety and food resource management. Significant effect sizes ranged from 0.29 to 0.57.

Rev It Up! participants demonstrated significant prepost behavioral changes, especially among subgroup analyses. Future studies could establish generalizability for rural adolescents.