David A Dzewaltowski

David A Dzewaltowski
University of Nebraska Medical Center | UNMC · Department of Health Promotion, Social and Behavioral Health

Ph.D.

About

215
Publications
35,999
Reads
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9,204
Citations
Additional affiliations
January 2017 - present
University of Nebraska Medical Center
Position
  • Professor and Endowed Community Chair
January 1987 - December 2016
Kansas State University
Position
  • Professor and Department Head

Publications

Publications (215)
Article
Full-text available
Background : Adult-led organized settings for children (eg, classrooms) provide opportunities for physical activity (PA). The structure of setting time may influence inequalities (ie, unequalness) in the distribution of PA. This study examined differences in PA inequality by setting and time-segment purpose in time-segmented organized group setting...
Article
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Background Community-based coalitions are a common strategy for community engagement efforts targeting the improvement of a variety of population health outcomes. The typical processes that coalitions follow to organize efforts include steps that are sequential, slow, and time intensive. These processes also limit local decision-making to the selec...
Article
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Background Approaches to prevent and manage diabetes at a community population level are hindered because current strategies are not aligned with the structure and function of a community system. We describe a community-driven process based on local data and rapid prototyping as an alternative approach to create diabetes prevention and care managem...
Article
Background: Locomotor and object control skills are considered essential skills for children to learn due to their potential impact in aiding in future healthenhancing physical activity. Evidence indicates that out-of-school time programs (OST) can provide meaningful movement opportunities for children. It has been found that leaders of OST program...
Article
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Introduction Lack of physical activity (PA) among children living in rural communities is a documented public health problem. Although studies have examined community conditions defined by a rural–urban dichotomy, few have investigated rural community conditions with a concentration of Hispanic/Latino people. This cross-sectional study examined soc...
Article
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Objective This scoping review synthesizes studies examining community-level variability in physical activity resource (assets) and opportunity (organized group physical activity services) availability by community sociodemographic characteristics to describe methodologies for measuring resources/opportunities, indicators characterizing availability...
Preprint
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Background: Children accumulate physical activity (PA) in adult-led organized group settings (e.g., classrooms). Variability in mean PA exists based on the social system structure of setting time, but the influence of structure on PA inequality is unknown. This study examined PA inequality, defined by the Gini coefficient, in time-segmented organiz...
Preprint
BACKGROUND To address the public health crisis of obesity, healthcare recommendations include referring patients to evidence-based programming. In rural areas where resources are scant, how best to identify and engage patients in weight management programming has yet to be determined. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this Hybrid Type-III effectiveness-dis...
Article
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Background To address low state physical education (PE) quantity and quality law implementation in elementary schools, the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) delivered a multilevel intervention (PE Works; 2015-2019), which included a district-led audit of school PE-law implementation, feedback, and coaching with principals. Using the Re...
Article
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Background: Communities are wellness landscapes of geospatially and temporally bound settings where children spend their time. Improving population physical activity (PA) requires investigating available community settings for children, such as classrooms and sport teams, and the dynamic social interactions producing PA. This protocol describes a...
Article
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Background Obesity disproportionally impacts rural, lower-income children in the United States. Primary care providers are well-positioned to engage parents in early obesity prevention, yet there is a lack of evidence regarding the most effective care delivery models. The ENCIRCLE study, a pragmatic cluster-randomized controlled trial, will respond...
Article
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Objectives: To examine differences in rural community children's moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and participation in out-of-school activities from fall 2019 to fall 2020 and explore enacted PA opportunity modifications post initial COVID-19 disruption. Design: Mixed methods study using the validated Youth Activity Profile (YAP), a...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background Out-of-school time (OST) organized group youth activities (e.g., afterschool programs, clubs) can reduce health inequalities by increasing physical activity (PA). However, unlike youth sport, PA is not the primary focus of many organized activities. This study examined the association between rural children’s demographic factors and OST...
Article
Background Early Care and Education (ECE) programs offer ideal settings for young children to develop healthy dietary intake. Implementation of responsive feeding evidence-based practices (EBPs) are a promising avenue to promote healthy eating in young children while supporting children's autonomy and self-regulation. However, implementation of res...
Article
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To investigate the potential for a definitive home-based trial, this study tested the feasibility of participant recruitment, delivery, and rigorous evaluation for an innovative girls-only health coaching intervention model. Results indicated the intervention model was feasible and can progress to a potentially effective fully powered trial.
Article
Objective Conduct formative evaluation of Ecological Approach to Family-Style Dining (EAT) Intervention. Design Qualitative semistructured interviews and demographic surveys. Setting Early care and education (ECE) centers in Nebraska. Participants Cooperative Extension coaches (n = 9), ECE administrators (n = 8), and teachers (n = 17) caring for...
Article
Background The School Wellness Integration Targeting Child Health (SWITCH) intervention has demonstrated feasibility as an implementation approach to help schools facilitate changes in students’ physical activity (PA), sedentary screen time (SST), and dietary intake (DI). This study evaluated the comparative effectiveness of enhanced (individualize...
Article
Full-text available
Accurate and effective local data collection systems are needed to inform community change on youth health behaviors such as physical activity (PA). Systematic methods are particularly important for understanding PA behaviors that may be influenced by individual, interpersonal, organizational, and regional factors. The purpose of this study was to...
Article
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Whole-of-community interventions delivered across entire geospatial areas show promise for improving population health for youth cancer prevention. The aims of this scoping review were to synthesize the whole-of-community intervention literature on six modifiable risk factors in youth for cancer prevention (alcohol use, diet, obesity, physical acti...
Article
Full-text available
A common way to address rural population health issues is through community stakeholders working together. Youth physical activity (PA) happens in adult-led in-school and out-of-school group opportunities that vary across communities and generally occur in isolated settings. This study explores similarities and differences in rural community system...
Article
Full-text available
Background Physical activity, a high-frequency health behavior, varies by where children live, learn, and play. Children accumulate physical activity in adult-led in-school and out-of-school settings. Youth sport is a potential setting for physical activity, but there are differences in youth sport participation based on age, sex, and socioeconomic...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background Physical activity, a high-frequency health behavior, varies by where youth live, learn, and play. Youth accumulate physical activity in adult-led in-school and out-of-school settings. Youth sport is a potential setting for physical activity, but there are differences in youth sport participation based on age, gender, and socioeconomic st...
Article
Full-text available
Background School wellness programming is important for promoting healthy lifestyles and academic achievement in youth; however, research is needed on methods that can help schools implement and sustain such programs on their own. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors within and outside the school environment that influenced school c...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background Ecological Approach To (EAT) Family Style is a 16-week responsive feeding Early Care and Education (ECE) intervention, utilizing a multilevel improvement system of 4 implementation strategies: (a) provision of a 7-lesson, on-line professional development training for administrators and teachers (b) administrative support; (c) performance...
Article
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Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of an ecological, multi-component adolescent obesity prevention intervention called School Wellness Integration Targeting Child Health-Middle School (SWITCH-MS). Methods: Following the effectiveness-implementation hybrid type 3 quasi-experimental design, seve...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: School wellness programming is important for promoting academic achievement and healthy lifestyles in youth; however, research is needed on methods that can help schools implement and sustain programs on their own. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors within and outside the school environment that impacted school capacit...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: School wellness programming is important for promoting healthy lifestyles and academic achievement in youth; however, research is needed on methods that can help schools implement and sustain such programs on their own. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors within and outside the school environment that influenced school...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: School wellness programming is important for promoting healthy lifestyles and academic achievement in youth; however, research is needed on methods that can help schools implement and sustain such programs on their own. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors within and outside the school environment that influenced school...
Article
Objective To evaluate a responsive feeding intervention ‘Ecological Approach to (EAT) Family Style’ through the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework. Use of Theory or Research EAT Family Style is guided by the self-determination theory and includes an evidence-informed implementation improvement system...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: School wellness programming is important for promoting academic achievement and healthy lifestyles in youth; however, research is needed on methods that can help schools implement and sustain programs on their own. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors within and outside the school environment that impacted school capacit...
Article
Background Early childhood education programs provide a setting to reach children and parents to modify home environments to prevent obesity. The Healthy Opportunities for Physical Activity and Nutrition Home (HOP’N) Home project was a novel approach that linked Family Child Care Homes (FCCH) to home environments by developing children’s asking ski...
Article
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The need for physical activity promotion is ubiquitous, and offering physical activity interventions in community settings may reach people where they live, work, and play. Reaching people and providing evidence-based programming is exactly what the Cooperative Extension System has accomplished over the last century. In 2014, federal policy brought...
Article
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Approximately 15 million children under age 6 are in childcare settings, offering childcare providers an opportunity to influence children's dietary intake. Childcare settings vary in organizational structure - childcare centers (CCCs) vs. family childcare homes (FCCHs) - and in geographical location - urban vs. rural. Research on the nutrition-rel...
Article
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School Wellness Integration Targeting Child Health (SWITCH ®) is a school wellness implementation initiative focused on building capacity for schools to plan and coordinate wellness programming. Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), the purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of the web-based, self-regulation system on physical activ...
Article
Objective: To explore whether basketball player’s self-determined motivation interacts with environmental contexts and coach training to influence percentage time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (%MVPA). Methods: A secondary analysis of data from 76 girls (mean ± SD, 10.5 ± 1.0 years) was conducted. Players were classified as high self-de...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Objective To determine the impact of the Ecological Approach to (EAT) Family Style Dining intervention on childcare providers’ implementation of responsive feeding practices, children's knowledge and familiarity of fruits and vegetables (FV), and dietary intake. Use of Theory or Research EAT Family Style is guided by the socio-ecological theory an...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Background/Purpose: Schools often need support and assistance to set up and manage ‘whole-of-school’ programs focused on promoting healthy lifestyles in students. The School Wellness Integration Targeting Child Health (SWITCH) initiative is designed to build capacity for schools to plan, implement and sustain effective school wellness programming....
Article
Girl Scouts (GS) is a setting with large reach to target increased moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in girls. The Scouting Nutrition and Activity Program (SNAP) increased MVPA during intervention troop meetings; therefore, further examination of implementation of SNAP components is warranted to determine the processes contributing to i...
Article
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Background: There is a need to identify strategies that enhance the implementation of evidence-based school wellness intervention programs in real-world settings. The present study evaluates the feasibility of empowering school wellness leaders to deliver an evidence-based, childhood obesity-prevention program called Switch ™. We specifically evalu...
Article
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Objective: There is a need to identify strategies that enhance the implementation of evidence-based school wellness interventions in real-world settings. The present study evaluates the feasibility of empowering school wellness leaders to deliver an evidence-based, childhood obesityprevention initiative called SWITCH™ (School Wellness Integration T...
Article
ACSM Abstract Implications of direct observation methods for describing drivers of children’s physical activity Chelsey R. Schlechter, Justin M. Guagliano, Richard R. Rosenkranz, FACSM & David A. Dzewaltowski Direct observation (DO) is a popular objective method to describe children’s physical activity (PA) and setting context. DO is a category o...
Article
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Background: Youth sport (YS) reaches a large number of children world-wide and contributes substantially to children's daily physical activity (PA), yet less than half of YS time has been shown to be spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Physical activity during practice is likely to vary depending on practice structure that chan...
Article
Full-text available
BACKGROUND: Youth sport (YS) reaches a large number of children world-wide and contributes substantially to children's daily physical activity (PA), yet less than half of YS time has been shown to be spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Physical activity during practice is likely to vary depending on practice structure that chang...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose To evaluate the effectiveness of in-person versus online Girl Scout leader wellness training for implementation of wellness-promoting practices during troop meetings (phase I) and to assess training adoption and current practices across the council (phase II). Design Pragmatic superiority trial (phase 1) followed by serial cross-sectional...
Article
Full-text available
Background: It is presently unknown whether behaviorally oriented, theory-based nutrition education from a Western context could be effective for improving healthy eating behavior and its psychosocial determinants among Russian children. Effective nutrition education delivered in summer programs could potentially impact dietary patterns and play an...
Article
Purpose: This study investigated the effect of summer camp session context on Russian girls' physical activity (PA). Method: Girls (n = 32, Mage = 10.7 years, SD = 0.6 years) from a resident summer camp taking place in the Vologda Region of Russia were exposed to 1 session context/day (i.e., free play, organized with no choice, organized with ch...
Article
Fewer than half of children are currently meeting recommended physical activity (PA) guidelines of at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day, with fewer girls than boys meeting guidelines. Girl Scouts (GS) is a potential target setting for increasing PA in girls, though little is known about the time-segmented pat...
Article
Full-text available
The final publication is available at link.springer.com . This pilot study compared sedentary behavior (SB) of children with autism (ASD) to typically developing peers (TD), and evaluated the influence of social con-texts within free play (FP) and organized activity settings on SB of children with ASD during an inclusive summer camp. Participants...
Article
Background: Preschool children are recommended to spend at least 15 minutes/hour (25% time) in light-to-vigorous physical activity (total physical activity, TPA). Preschool provider practices, such as whether children are put in small group or whole-group activities, are likely to affect children's TPA levels during preschool. The current study ch...
Article
Introduction: Interventions targeting children's dietary behavior often include strategies that target parents as implementation agents of change, though parent involvement on intervention effectiveness is unclear. The present study systematically assessed (1) reporting of reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation and maintenance (RE-AIM) of...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Childhood obesity is a major public health problem, with one third of America's children classified as either overweight or obese. Obesity prevention and health promotion programs using components such as wellness coaching and home-based interventions have shown promise, but there is a lack of published research evaluating the impact o...
Article
This study examined moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) levels in youth during flag football practice and compared youth MVPA in practices led by trained or untrained, and by experienced or inexperienced, coaches. Boys (n = 111, mean age = 7.9 ± 1.2 years) from 14 recreation-level flag football teams wore an accelerometer during two pract...
Article
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SUMMARY. After-school garden programs may be an effective setting to reach schoolage children to promote nutritious diets and physical activity, while reducing sedentary behavior. The current analyses drew data from Project PLANTS (i.e., promoting lifelong activity and nutrition through schools), an after-school randomized controlled trial focusing...
Article
This paper provides an overview of several university programs that have integrated various aspects of public health into their kinesiology instruction, research, and outreach efforts. The summaries of these programs provide the historical context that shows the various stages of transformation of their kinesiology and exercise science programs ove...
Article
Full-text available
Kinesiology is an academic discipline with a body of content that can be drawn on to support professions and to solve important public health problems. The Kansas State Physical Activity Systems Framework defines a new approach to structure the discipline. Central to the framework is the rejection of a kinesiology subdisciplinary approach and the a...
Article
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Physical activity (PA) improves many facets of health. Despite this, the majority of American adults are insufficiently active. Adults who visit a physician complaining of chest pain and related cardiovascular symptoms are often referred for further testing. However, when this testing does not reveal an underlying disease or pathology, patients typ...
Conference Paper
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INTRODUCTION: Compared to neurotypical (NT) children, children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) spend more time in sedentary behavior (SB), any waking activity in a sitting or reclining position with an energy expenditure of ≤1.5 metabolic equivalents, during the weekdays. SB is a risk factor for overweight in children, which in turn poses addi...
Article
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Background: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) may be at greater risk for not meeting physical activity (PA) guidelines than neurotypical children (NT). The purpose of this study was to explore setting (free play versus organized) and social group composition influences on PA of children with ASD during summer camp. Methods: Data were...
Conference Paper
Schenkelberg, M. A., Rosenkranz, R. R., & Dzewaltowski, D. A. (2014, May). Is There Enough Support for Physical Activity in Head Start?. In MEDICINE AND SCIENCE IN SPORTS AND EXERCISE (Vol. 46, No. 5, pp. 489-490). 530 WALNUT ST, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19106-3621 USA: LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS.
Article
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Positive youth development (PYD) is an emerging area of study and practice that targets fostering the assets of young people to avoid problem behaviors and excel in meeting diverse life challenges. This paper describes how PYD evolved from treating problem behaviors to preventing problem behaviors in at-risk youth, to more recently helping all yout...
Conference Paper
This project tested the feasibility of using a school garden to integrate youth, community, and family to promote healthy lifestyle choices for overweight prevention. There were several components to this project. We 1) developed and tested a theory-based after-school gardening program that promoted healthy lifestyle choices through targeting fruit...