About Team Kid Power

Team Kid Power (Team KiPOW! For short) is a school-based program and non-profit organization which implements health policy to improve diet and exercise practice in underserved communities and employs evidence-based methods to change behavior in children.

We are a partnership between academic medical institutions and the communities they serve.

Team KiPOW! is a Weight-Neutral Program

Team KiPOW! promotes healthy diets and meaningful movement regardless of weight status.

We are all about:

Positive body image
Healthy lifestyles

Why We Are Needed

Poor cardiometabolic health is not a chronic problem. It is a true epidemic in U.S. youth.

Children now have diseases that were formerly only found in adults:

Type 2 diabetes
Atherosclerotic heart disease
Fatty liver disease
Cognitive dysfunction and mental health diseases

Rates of pediatric obesity have more than doubled in children, and quadrupled in adolescents, over the last 30 years- and it only continues to rise.

Poor dietary habits and a sedentary lifestyle in children leads to:

Insulin resistance and increased cardiometabolic risk… which can result in:

Cognitive dysfunction
Poor student academic performance, test scores, and attendance
Psychiatric and psychological disorders, including
- Depression
- ADHD
- Bullying
- Learning disabilities
- Poor stress regulation

The Disease of Obesity Discriminates

Minority and low-income children continue to bear the greatest burden of risk. This disparity continues to rise.

Obesity Prevalance Among Children Ages 10-17 by Coverage Type

Chronic Condition Diagnoses Among Medicaid Children with an Obesity Diagnosis Compared to Those Without

Pediatricians can’t prevent poor cardiometabolic health by themselves.

Pediatricians have about 15-30 minutes ANNUALLY to discuss growth, development, anticipatory guidance, immunizations, and additional concerns…..and to address all of the physical, social, psychologic, AND economic factors that play a role in cardiometabolic health
Pediatricians can’t control the built environment of a child and a have limited ability to change it
Medical students have limited exposure to lifestyle counseling in medical school and residency

Factors that Affect Cardiometabolic Health

Healthy food availability
Cost of healthy food
Availability of safe places to play and supervision
Genetics
Metabolic rate
The list goes on!

The Role of Policy

Children spend approximately 943 hours per year in school.

Schools control a significant portion of a built environment for youth and present a big opportunity for change.

State and federal policies in schools have been “implemented”

The government recognizes that schools can be used to level the playing field for disadvantaged children.

Provide nutritious Food for kids during breakfast and lunch

National Standards and Grade-Level Outcomes for K-12 Physical Education

Increase the mandatory physical fitness minutes per week in schools

Make health education mandatory to improve health literacy

Policy Reality

Healthy school lunch optionsBUT kids aren’t eating it
Increased mandatory physical education minutesBUT no time in the curriculum, no space to exercise, and no teachers!
Mandatory health minutes in schoolBUT limited access to a curriculum, health teachers, or time to teach it!

We need environmental change AND behavior change

The Theory

What actually Works to Change Behavior

The United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends >26 hours face-to-face time with a trusted health care provider over 2 to 12 months to achieve behavior change.

Currently: 30 minutes annually with pediatrician per year

We must think outside the box and go beyond the traditional clinical model!

The Catalyst for behavior change = Team KiPOW!

Our Model

Team KiPOW! is a catalyst that can help schools achieve ambitious student wellness goals.

We looked at the incentives of all stakeholders and developed a model to implement enlightened school healthy policy, to change the behavior of school children so that they could achieve their desired effect, to quantify their impact, and to train the next generation of healthcare providers to be effective in lifestyle counseling.

Trains medical students to be health mentors
- Rigorous curriculum teaching lifestyle counseling, nutrition, leadership
Brings them into schools to extend the continuum of care from the academic medical center into the community
Adds at least 26 hours of face-to-face time with healthcare providers each school year
Provides an in-service lifestyle counseling learning curriculum to medical schools
- Often cited as missing in medical school curriculums today

It’s mutually beneficial: there’s no extra burden on elementary schools or medical schools.

The KiPOW! Intervention

Trained mentors visit each school for 20 weeks, once per week, during lunch or during an after school program
They teach an interactive, evidence-based health lesson for 25 minutes
Mentors eat a healthy lunch or snack with the students to model health behaviors
Mentors then engage the kids in active play for about 30 minutes

It’s Magic!

A health education curriculum and physical activity minutes are achieved for the kids without taking away academic time
Kids eat the healthy food because their mentors are doing it and over time behavior changes
It takes minimal mentor commitment
- Mentors and school children wear Team KiPOW! “Superhero” t-shirts with class members to develop “branding”
- Kids develop a bond with the mentor team but don’t necessarily need to bond with individual mentors
We obtain data to measure our impact on elementary school students and medical student mentors

Symbiosis: We Need to Train Health Professional Students to Address Prevention!

Team KiPOW! fills a critical gap in medical education: lifestyle counseling
Team Kid Power! introduces a ready-made service learning opportunity into medical school curriculums
Med students obtain hands-on experience with the complex reality of behavioral choices outside the clinical setting
Allows medical students to meaningfully engage with their communities
Teaches medical students to evaluate the impact of their actions and learn about community-based research

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4212253/

We Teach Simple, Evidence-Based, & Interactive Lessons

Sample 10 week Curriculum

Introduction to Team KiPOW!, My Plate Model (Smart Food + Active Play = ENERGY aka POWER)
Breakfast (One A Day)
Water (Introduction to the P-Meter – What Pee Color Tells You)
Exercise (Introduction to Blood Pressure – and How Food and Play Can Change It)
Fruits, Vegetables, and Vitamins (Eat the Rainbow)
Carbohydrates and Nutrition Labels (Why Fiber is a Carbohydrate Upgrade)
Proteins (Think Flexitarian) and Fats (Where to Find the Best Kind, Which to Leave Behind)
Snacks (How to Use What We Know Now to Feed a Snack Attack)
Sleep (Make Mindful Breathing Part of Your Night Time
Review (Jeopardy Game Show — Review)

Sample 20 week Curriculum

Introductions, My Plate, Energy
Breakfast
Water and Diabetes
Exercise and Blood Pressure
Major Nutrients
Fruits and Vegetables
Carbohydrates
Whole grains
Say No To Drugs
Proteins

Healthy Fats
Vitamins
Calcium
Macro/Micro Minerals
Reading Nutrition Labels
Healthy Recipes
Sleep and Mindful Moments
Group Project Part 1
Group Project Part 2
Final Jeopardy

We believe in getting families involved!

Accessible on interactive website

Additional resources for families sent home each week

Our Goals

We aim:

1

To attack the growing epidemic of poor pediatric cardiometabolic health in an evidence-based, effective manner
2
For every child to be able to eat nutritious and tasty food, to engage in meaningful movement daily, and to learn about their health and bodies
3
To train the next generation of physicians and healthcare providers to learn how to counsel patients on lifestyle change, act beyond the walls of the hospital and clinic, and make meaningful change in their communities