Enhancing Diet Quality for Early Care and Education Providers in Maryland

Many child care workers are women of color, contributing to higher rates of chronic disease in this population, compared to other women. Our goal is to understand factors that make it harder or easier for child care workers to eat well, exercise, and manage stress – important behaviors in the prevention and management of conditions such as overweight and obesity, heart disease, and type II diabetes. We will use survey data to understand diet and physical activity behaviors and stress experienced by child care workers in central Maryland. We will conduct focus groups and interviews with members of the child care community to understand their perspectives on factors that make it harder or easier to eat well, exercise, and manage stress. Lastly, we will identify the factors that are commonly experienced. Little is known about the factors that make to harder or easier for child care workers to eat well, exercise, and manage stress – key behaviors in the prevention and management of chronic disease. Better understanding of these factors will identify areas to target in public health interventions. My goal as a researcher is to work with communities to design and test interventions to support the health of disadvantaged populations. This project will generate the information needed to apply for additional funding to develop a health promotion intervention for child care workers.