Hopkins County Health Impact Summary

Agri-Life Extension
Johanna Hicks

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Family & Community Health Agent, Hopkins County, jshicks@ag.tamu.edu

It is the second program impact summary that Hopkins County Family & Community Health Extension provides. 

Relevance

According to https://nccd.cdc.gov, Hopkins County has a population of approximately 37,211. Nineteen percent of children live in poverty, and an average of 21% of youth ages 6-19 are overweight.

Additionally, approximately 24% achieve one hour or less of moderate physical activity; an average of 45% consume less than one serving of fruit per day, and 50% consume less than one serving of vegetables per day. Other factors that can be a detriment to youth health and wellness include:

• adult obesity (32% of Hopkins County population)
• adult smoking (20%)
• uninsured (24%)

Response

The Community Health/Wellness Alliance and Hopkins County Master Wellness Volunteers identified the need to continue addressing childhood health in nutrition, physical activity, and well-being. Sulphur Springs and Cumby ISDs partnered to accomplish the report for their 2022 summer day camp program. The target audience was students in grades 1-5. Collaborators in the effort were:

• Department of State Health Services (session on water/sun safety)
• United Healthcare (session on dental care)
• Northeast Texas Child Advocacy Center (sessions on stranger danger)
• Barbara Bush Primary Campus (facilities for sessions)
• League Street Church of Christ (facilities for the hands-on cooking sessions)
• Cumby School campus (facilities for sessions)
• Hopkins County Master Wellness Volunteers
• Healthy Texas Youth Ambassador

Results

A total of nine sessions were provided, including a 2 ½ hour hands-on cooking session for Sulphur Springs students. Sessions included: physical activity at each session, the “Color Me Healthy” curriculum, nutrition, the importance of breakfast, MyPlate, sun safety, water safety, stranger danger, and the hands-on cooking session included reading and following a recipe, food safety, hand hygiene, and kitchen safety. In addition, they distributed the incentive items to reinforce the information learned: MyPlate plates, exercise bands, MyPlate flying discs, sports bottles, aprons, and more.

In a retrospective, they distributed an 11-question post-survey to two Sulphur Springs classes (30 returned) and a 14-question post-survey to two Cumby classes, with 20 returned. Surveys included multiple choice, true or false questions and intent to adopt practices learned during the sessions. Students indicated learning:

• 100% (50/50) were able to identify dairy products from a list
• 100% (50/50) were able to locate the recommended number of minutes of physical activity
• 100% (50/50) were able to locate the best beverage for hot days
• 90% (45/50) were able to determine what to do in the event of severe weather
• 88% (44/50) were able to locate sedentary behavior vs. physical activity
• 88% (44/50) were able to identify foods in the protein group

Intent to adopt practices:

• 100% (50/50) indicated that they would drink more water and fewer sweetened beverages
• 96% (48/50) indicated that they plan to eat breakfast every morning
• 88% (44/50) indicated that they plan to eat more fruits & vegetables

I know statistics can be boring, but they certainly help tell the story about the impact of these programs! Texas A&M AgriLife Extension is about education and helping people have better lives. Thank the two schools for allowing me to be part of their very successful summer camp program!

Closing Thought

A year is 365 opportunities for something great to happen!