The Origin Story
Team KiPOW (Kid Power!) is an academic-community partnership which was first started in Washington DC to help implement diet and exercise policy in Title I schools. Such institutions, which had the greatest proportion of overweight children, lacked adequate resources to feasibly implement enlightened health policies that were designed to level the playing field for all children. Realizing that Orange County had similar problems with students not eating their healthy free lunches and with schools not being able to meet the recommended minimum physical activity and health education minutes, Team KiPOW OC sprung into action.
A task force of trained, energetic medical and undergraduate students model healthy behaviors at school sites with a high proportion of students on the National School Lunch Program during federally-funded school lunch and recess. They eat a healthy school lunch with the children weekly, engage them in physical activity at recess, and teach an interactive health curriculum. A sense of camaraderie is promoted as everyone wears a shiny Team KiPOW superhero shirt during these sessions. Direct face-time with mentors, not feasible in the traditional medical office visit, is an evidence-based requirement for measurable behavior change, which leads to positive health behavior outcomes and improved physiologic markers.
A 10-week Pilot Study at Helen Estock Elementary School in Tustin took place every Friday as a joint study between UCI and Children's National Medical Center. We recorded anthropomorphic data (height, weight, BMI), blood pressures, and had the children perform a standardized fitness test, which we repeated at the end of a semester. We also measured lunch consumption, physical activity, and preferences before and after the intervention. The goal is to function as a liaison between the National School Lunch Program and the population it serves, while increasing physical activity minutes and health education in classrooms to meet the nationally recommended minimums. Our data from the Pilot Study demonstrates that this type of program is feasible and sustainable in our local schools with positive physiologic outcomes in just 10 weeks!
We are currently working to demonstrate the program's success during a longer, more robust study and program this year. We have expanded to additional schools and have a large mentor pool of high-energy KiPOW volunteers. We hope to disseminate this strategy for improving the health of children and act as an adjunct for health policy in the Orange and Los Angeles counties because WE KNOW IT WORKS!
Awards, Grants, and Funding
- American Academy of Pediatrics Anne E. Dyson Award for Child Advocacy 2016
- AAP Orange County Chapter’s Young Physician Community Engagement Award 2015
- AAP Orange County Chapter’s Young Physician Community Engagement Award 2016
- UCI Dorothy Waffarn Child Health Traineeship Research Award 2015
- UCI Dorothy Waffarn Child Health Traineeship Research Award 2015
- Medical Student Poster Presentation Award (2016 NEPO Building Healthy Communities Summit)
- U.S. Public Health Service Excellence in Public Health Award 2014
Presentations
Nam J, Love A, Vargas C, Winckler B, Narayanan N, Nagpal N, Zieve H, Chan A, Mitragotri N, Vyas A, Jensen M, Bhalerao R, Taylor Lucas C. “Implementation of Team Kid Power (KiPOW!): A School Based Intervention Targeting Pediatric Dietary and Physical Activity Barriers” (Poster Presentation, 2016 NEPO Building Healthy Communities Summit, Newport Beach, CA)
Narayanan N, Nagpal N, Zieve H, Vargas C, Love A, Nam J, Chan A, Mitragotri N, Vyas A, Winckler B, Jensen M, Bhalerao R, Taylor Lucas C. "Implementation of Team Kid Power (KiPOW!): A school based intervention targeting pediatric dietary and physical activity behaviors" (Poster Presentation, 2016 UC Irvine Translational Research Day, Irvine, CA).
Zieve H, Nagpal N, Narayanan N. “Team KIPOW: Increasing Face-time and Playing for Pediatric Weight Loss” (Abstract Presentation, 2016 Pediatrics 2040: Trends and Innovations for the Next 25 Years, Laguna Niguel, CA).
Nam J, Love A, Vargas C, Winckler B, Narayanan N, Nagpal N, Zieve H, Chan A, Mitragotri N, Vyas A, Jensen M, Bhalerao R, Taylor Lucas C. “Implementation of Team Kid Power (KiPOW!): A School Based Intervention Targeting Pediatric Dietary and Physical Activity Barriers” (Poster Presentation, 2016 CMA House of Delegates Conference, Sacramento, CA)
Narayanan N, Tatum J, Ramos M, Kim J, Punatar N, Mietus-Snyder M. “A Pilot Academic- Community Partnership To Advance the DC Healthy Schools Act.” George Washington University School of Medicine, Children’s National Medical Center. (Poster Presentation, Pediatric Academic Societies 2014 meeting and Eastern Societies for Pediatric Research Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada).
Partners
Orange County Public Schools (OCPS)
CHOC Children's Hospital
University of California, Irvine School of Medicine
Children's National Medical Center
Pediatric Exercise and Genomics Research Center
UC Irvine-CHOC Pediatric Residency Program
Children's National Obesity Institute