Using a Humanoid Robot Along With a Registered Dietitian in an After-School Program to Promote Healthy Eating Habits and Physical Activity in School-aged Children

The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a novel 6-week after school nutrition and physical activity intervention administered by a registered dietitian with the help of a humanoid robot targeting elementary school aged children aged 6–12 years. The study was conducted across four Young Men’s Christian’s Association (YMCA) sites in Miami-Dade County, Florida (N= 114, Mean age: 8.16 ±1.57 years) using a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design via randomly assigned intervention (two sites; n=63) and comparison groups (two sites; n=51). The validated Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) kids club questionnaire and the validated Previous Day Physical Activity Recall (PDPAR) were used to assess nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitudes/beliefs and behavior change. The Inbody 230 instrument (Biospace, California) was used to calculate body composition and weight. Body Mass Index (BMI) percentiles and associated BMI z-scores for age and gender were calculated based on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) growth charts. Data measures were collected at baseline (week 0) and one-week post intervention (week 7). Statistical analysis included independent and paired t-test for continuous variables, chi-square for categorical variables and linear regression. Results indicated that nutrition knowledge score significantly increased from 67.43% ±21.03 to 81.31% ±18.47 in the intervention group (p<0.001) whereas no significant increase was noted in the comparison group (p=0.565). PDPAR also significantly increased in the intervention group (P<0.001), however, a significant decrease was shown in the comparison group (p<0.001). It was portrayed that children in the intervention group consumed significantly more vegetables (p=0.043) and significantly less high fat snacks (p=0.005) the previous day than the comparison group post-intervention. Screen time during the week (p<0.001) and weekend (p=0.022) was significantly less post-intervention in the intervention group when compared to the control. There was no significant change in BMI z-scores pre/post intervention (p=0.977). Our findings indicate that this innovative 6-week intervention had promising results with respect to nutrition and physical activity knowledge and behavior change. However, a longer follow-up time would be needed to observe a change in BMI z-scores as well as sustainability of the behavior change.