Case Western Reserve University study looks at keeping migrant workers' childr...( CLEVELAND As Ohio and Michigan fruit a...)

CLEVELAND As Ohio and Michigan fruit and vegetable farms yield this year's harvest, they also will provide data about the eating choices of Latino migrant children for a Case Western Reserve University researcher. Information gathered this summer will help migrant families understand why their children are part of the growing national obesity epidemic and contribute to new interventions to combat this serious health issue.

With a 41 percent obesity rate among migrant workers' childrena figure that is double the nation's averageJill Kilanowski, a pediatric nurse practitioner and assistant professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, will survey families about their eating habits and lifestyle issues.

In Kilanowski's pilot project, "Dietary Intake and Nutritional Education (DINE) for Latino Migrant Farmworkers," she will visit farms near Fremont and Tipp City Ohio, and South Haven, Michigan, and talk to approximately 60 families with children between the ages of 2 and 13.

The project is one of the new pilot studies launched by the National Institute of Health-funded Center of Excellence Self-Management Advancement through Research and Translation (SMART) at the nursing school, which was established to find ways to help people self-manage their own health care.

Kilanowski plans to take the data and develop healthy, low cost and culturally appropriate health promotion interventions to assist families in planning and serving up balanced meals that fit the lifestyle of the working migrant family.

The interventions also will be designed to help working mothers, she said, who may have little energy or time after a day working the fields to satisfy the family's hunger.

Hurried working moms getting a quick dinner on the table and high calorie snack choices between meals might be contributing to the obesity problem, said Kilanowski.

Kilanowski will find out what migrant workers' children are eating for snacks an
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