Power-Up: A Collaborative After-School Program to Prevent Obesity in

Background: Schools represent a key potential venue for addressing childhood obesity. Objective: To assess the feasibility of Power-Up, an after- school program to decrease obesity risk among African American children, using community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles. Methods: Teachers led 14 weekly nutrition and physical activity sessions during after-school care at the Woodlawn Community School on Chicago's South Side. Forty African American children ages 5 to 12 participated; their 28 parents discussed similar topics weekly at pickup time, and families practiced relevant skills at home. Pre- and post-intervention anthropometrics, blood pressure, dietary measures, and health knowledge and beliefs for children and parents were compared in univariate analysis. Results: At baseline, 26% of children were overweight; 28% were obese. Post-intervention, mean body mass index (BMI) z scores decreased from 1.05 to 0.81 (p < .0001). Changes were more pronounced for overweight (−0.206 z-score units)