Engaging Youth to Examine Lifestyle Behaviors through Authentic Research with University Partnerships.

Abstract University researchers partnered with secondary students in West Virginia and Mali on an international science investigation to strengthen science education and public health practices. WV and Mali students made comparisons of diet, physical activity, BMI, and blood pressure gathered from study participants. Full IRB approval was provided by West Virginia University for this human subjects study. The mean systolic blood pressure for the Mali participants was significantly lower, especially when compared to African-American youth (p=.0008), as was the mean BMI scores of Mali participants ([F.sub.1,77] = 11.43, p=0.0011). Student investigators analyzed results with guidance by university faculty and showcased their results to peer-audiences at school, for local community events, and at annual Symposia. The University partnership provided opportunities for secondary students and their teachers to discover the role that environment plays in influencing health via authentic research and exposure to international public health strategies. Viable alternatives to unhealthy behavior were shared. Results point to the importance of a nutrition-dense diet (low in fats and sugar) combined with simple walking, as beneficial for all humans. Such comparisons can enhance science education, global health awareness, and empower young adults to alter their unhealthy behavior so as to avoid chronic disease in adulthood. Key words: Secondary School, Partnership, Dietary, Physical Activity, Life Style Behavior Introduction It is a major challenge to alter the contemporary unhealthy eating habits and sedentary lifestyles of American youth, which lead to diabetes and cardiovascular disease in adulthood. (1) Public schools present an ideal context to assess promising public health strategies with students. Partnerships between university faculty, teachers, and students can facilitate the availability of resources and expertise that are crucial to increase the likelihood that students will integrate healthy behaviors into their lives. (2-4) With such collaboration, teachers and students can become active participants in authentic research while they gain insight from investigations that extend beyond the classroom walls and across the globe. Enhancing Secondary Student Research An example of such a collaborative partnership is the Health Sciences and Technology Academy of West Virginia (HSTA, WV). HSTA is a 9th-12th grade math and science program that encourages aspirations, opens doors, and empowers minority and underrepresented students to pursue health science careers. HSTA provides the infrastructure and support for science experts from several higher education institutions to partner with teachers and students across the state to provide mentoring and share their expertise. This collaboration results in community-based health science projects that involve active-learning and authentic research, helping students stay motivated, gain self confidence, and acquire scientific knowledge. (5, 6) With over 700 students in the state-wide program, the success rate of HSTA programming is impressive. Over 95% of the graduating HSTA students go to college versus 56% of all WV students. Upon graduation from high school and successful completion of the HSTA program, these students will receive tuition waivers at state-funded colleges/universities in WV for undergraduate and graduate degrees in health sciences. Eighty percent of the HSTA students stay in college, while only one out of three non-HSTA students continues in their first college year. Risk for Chronic Disease HSTA students and West Virginia University (WVU) faculty initiated the Lifestyles Project, which focused on an examination of lifestyle behaviors to better understand the national trend of sedentary lifestyles, obesity, and chronic disease. In WV, 63.7% of their adults are classified as overweight or obese from calculations of body mass index (BMI) (weight [kg]/[height. …