An online evaluation of a website featuring a brief electronic media e-health educational intervention to increase fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity among African American mothers and children

African-American youth experience disproportionate rates of childhood obesity compared to their White counterparts. Culturally tailored electronic media solutions hold the potential to overcome health literacy and health communication barriers. This study aimed to identify the impact of exposure to a new website portal (www.DIVAhealth.org/MomAndChildPlates ) hosting avatar videos to provide a brief electronic media e-health educational intervention designed to increase fruit and vegetable selections and physical activity when tailored for African-American parent-child dyads (N=93)—specifically mothers age 25 and above with a child between the ages of 8 to 14. A theory-based survey instrument was used to identify any changes from pre-video viewing to post-video viewing in mothers' knowledge, self-efficacy, and stage of change for selecting fruit and vegetables and engaging in physical activity; and, to ascertain any impact of the brief avatar video intervention upon their children's stage of change for selecting fruit and vegetable and physical activity. Fifteen paired sample t-tests indicated significant improvement across all areas, suggesting the e-health avatar videos served as an effective brief intervention. Ratings of videos were also obtained, revealing the vast majority of mothers (73%) and children (64%) indicated they would recommend the videos to others just as they were (i.e. the theme of the videos being "perfect already, excellent, good, we recommend")—suggesting they were adopters of the innovation of diffusing e-health on nutrition and physical activity (i.e. Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign, including the MyPlate initiative). Also, backwards stepwise regressions were conducted for: 1) Mother's Global Rating of E-Health Videos–identifying significant predictors of (a) mother was currently enrolled as a student (B= .589, p = .008), and (b) mothers having a lower education level (B= -.132, p = .05) [AdjR2 = .123, 12.3% of the variance]; and 2) Mother's Global Overall Rating of Website (ERHCW-6)–identifying significant predictors of (a) mothers not living with a partner (B = -.753, p = .018), (b) children having a higher BMI (B= .109, p = .001), yet (c) children having a lower weight rating given by their mother (B= -.881, p = .023) [Adj R2 = .196, 19.6% of the variance].