ECU Notes: Student participation helps researchers study COVID-19 | Local News

The publication was part of the team’s Engagement of Outreach Scholars Academy project. The program, led by the Office of Community Engagement and Research, connects faculty and students with community partners to develop a research project that solves a local need.

Stage said that research has consistently demonstrated that teacher role modeling can have a significant impact on students’ dietary behaviors, but often educators face barriers to improving their own health.

Her study, which included 15 in-depth interviews with early childhood education instructors in eastern North Carolina, identified some of these potential barriers and offered solutions to help teachers better model healthy lifestyle behaviors in the classroom. The study’s participants are educators in the federal Head Start program, which serves more than 1 million children each year in the United States and its territories.

Stage said that in her study, teachers showed enthusiasm in impacting their students’ health. However, enthusiasm alone is not enough to overcome the challenges of living healthy lives, Stage found. There are economic and social barriers that teachers must overcome.

“As a community, we should recognize that preschool teachers face important barriers to leading healthy lifestyles,” Stage said. “For one, our preschool teachers are largely underpaid. Low pay means that teachers may have fewer resources to support their ability to make positive health choices.

“The hard job of a preschool teacher also often makes it difficult for them to have the energy at the end of the day to cook healthy meals for themselves or be physically active. Educators and administrators should recognize these challenges and work together to create healthier work environments.”

While these barriers are not isolated to the teaching profession, due to the amount of time they spend with children, teachers may have a greater effect on the attitudes students develop toward healthy habits, Stage said.

“The bigger challenge has been the teachers’ struggles with how to eat healthily and be physically active,” Stage said. “Providing teachers with education and resources that support their health, as well as their ability to promote positive health among children and families, can go a long way.”

Stage and colleagues describe the positive effect of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program’s program Eating Smart Moving More on Head Start teachers’ healthy eating and physical activity behaviors in an accepted and soon-to-be-published article in the Journal of Extension.

“Simple environmental changes made within the preschool center can also be effective, such as building a walking track by the school for teachers and families to use, or engaging teachers in creating lunch menus that are healthy and appetizing for all,” she said. “The goal is to ‘make the healthy choice the easy choice’ by creating opportunities for teachers to eat healthy foods and be physically active every day.”

These changes may help teachers lead healthier lives, which provide better models for their students.

“Three important things teachers can start doing today include allowing students to explore new foods with their senses, promoting self-regulation and utilizing role modeling,” she said.

Preschool teachers can find nutrition resources for their classrooms online through ECU’s Food-Based Early Childhood Education Lab and North Carolina State University’s Expanded Food and Nutrition Program.

Student participation helps researchers study COVID-19

As students arrived on East Carolina University’s campus for the fall semester, a team of researchers led by Dr. Suzanne Lea, associate professor in the Brody School of Medicine’s Department of Public Health, launched a study to track COVID-19 among students living on campus.

In the midst of recruiting students to participate, ECU was forced to pivot from on-campus instruction, and most students left the residence halls.

“We planned the study based on students taking face-to-face courses on campus,” Lea said. “But we were able to adjust our research plan quickly, and … we had really terrific participation among the students that remained living in the dorms and remained in Pitt County.”

By expanding the eligible participants from freshmen in the residence halls to any student remaining in Pitt County, the team was able to register 136 participants who were tested every two weeks during the fall semester. They had a nasal swab test every visit to detect the active virus and a blood draw every other visit to test for antibodies. They also completed a survey each time about their prevention behaviors during the previous two weeks.

“We also collected data on many other factors, such as employment status, stress level and their perceptions about COVID impact in their life,” said Lea.

She said the project provided a snapshot of what was going on with the virus in the student population, particularly in the context of what was happening in Pitt County and statewide.

At the end of fall semester, “We found out that the occurrence of COVID disease among the ECU students in the sample was about 10%,” Lea said.

One interesting data point, though the sample size is small, is that students who reported symptoms at the time of testing positive for COVID-19 developed an antibody response sooner than students who did not report symptoms and tested positive for COVID-19.

“There’s little information on antibody conversion in healthy young adults who are followed over several months,” Lea said. “Many studies have examined antibody conversion in the hospital setting with patients and health care workers.”

The students, she said, connected with the idea of contributing to new science and also appreciated the opportunity to be tested regularly. The study is continuing this spring, with the same group of students coming back once a month for both a swab test and a blood draw.

“We have a lot of students who are very engaged with the process,” Lea said. “They appreciate the opportunity to be tested regularly, to participate in the research process, to learn science and learn about COVID-19. Many of them recognize that they are helping science learn something.”

Along with Lea, co-investigators on the study include Dr. Charleen McNeill of the College of Nursing and Drs. Kristina Simeonsson, Aaron Kipp and William Irish of the Brody School of Medicine.

Project examines behavior modeling in the classroom