Healthy Kids+: a healthy living after-school program for school-age children

Programs focusing on increasing opportunities for active living are necessary to prevent obesity and promote healthy lifestyles. Schools play a critical role in helping children develop healthy lifestyles, especially through recess, physical education classes, and after-school programs and activities. The purpose of this paper was to report on a pilot study of an after-school adaptation of the 5-2-1-0 + 10 program called Healthy Kids+. The Healthy Kids+ program was implemented in nine schools (six intervention and three control). The program evaluation consisted of assessing engagement in healthy behaviors, such as food preference, dietary knowledge, intentions to choose healthy food options, and participation in sedentary (e.g. screen time) and sports activities using a self-administered student-level questionnaire. The results indicated a statistically significant difference between the mean change scores of the experimental group and the control group on all main study variables. This study demonstrated a strong support for the notion that a well-structured theory-based intervention could significantly improve health behaviors among school-age children.