Swap Up Your Meal A Mass Media Nutrition Education Campaign For Oklahoma TeensInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Swap Up Your Meal A Mass Media Nutrition Education Campaign For Oklahoma TeensInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Environmental Research
and Public Health
Article
Swap Up Your Meal: A Mass Media Nutrition Education
Campaign for Oklahoma Teens
Dana E. Wagner 1, * , Gabrielle Seneres 1 , Elisabeth Jones 1 , Kelli A. Brodersen 2 and Sjonna Whitsitt-Paulson 2
1 Rescue Agency, PBC, 2437 Morena Blvd, San Diego, CA 92110, USA
2 Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, 2800 N. Lincoln, Ste 202, Oklahoma City, OK 73105, USA
* Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +619-231-7555 (ext. 331)
Abstract: To address a statewide need for obesity prevention, the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement
Endowment Trust launched Swap Up in 2021, a mass media nutrition education effort for teens, ages
13–18. Swap Up utilizes the SAVI messaging approach, an audience-centric message development
framework that recognizes barriers to healthy living and offers realistic solutions. Five months
into the campaign, an online survey was conducted (n = 200) to assess short-term program goals
related to campaign delivery, engagement, and relevance. A secondary, long-term goal related to
documenting and understanding self-reported changes in past month nutrition-related behaviors
was also explored. A majority of participants (72%) reported aided awareness of the campaign
brand logo/advertisements, and awareness (83%) of at least one main message. Nearly half (44%)
of the participants reported at least one engagement with digital media. Main message recognition,
perceived relevance, and self-reported nutritional behaviors were consistently highest among those
reporting both campaign awareness and digital engagement. Ultimately, Swap Up reached and
delivered nutrition education messages to Oklahoma teens within the first year of launch, as intended,
and was associated with self-reported changes in recent behavior. This study provides evidence that
SAVI offers a promising approach for nutrition education, and underscores why digital and social
Citation: Wagner, D.E.; Seneres, G.;
Jones, E.; Brodersen, K.A.;
media engagement strategies are critical for mass media teen behavior change campaigns. Campaign
Whitsitt-Paulson, S. Swap Up Your implementation and evaluation are ongoing.
Meal: A Mass Media Nutrition
Education Campaign for Oklahoma Keywords: obesity prevention; nutrition; nutrition education; mass media public health; public
Teens. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public health campaigns; digital and social media public health campaigns
Health 2022, 19, 10110. https://
doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191610110
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 10110. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191610110 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 10110 2 of 16
In August 2020, approximately one in eight Oklahomans reported sometimes or often not
having enough food [9,15].
While these challenges are contributing to high obesity rates in the state, it is important
to consider the extent to which public health can help adolescents overcome barriers and be
empowered to make healthier nutritional choices in their day-to-day lives. Research shows
that establishing healthy nutrition and physical activity habits earlier in life can reduce the
risk of adulthood obesity regardless of current weight status [16,17]. Therefore, providing
adolescents with education and an easily adoptable framework for making daily nutritious
choices could have benefits beyond their teen years.
The mass media and audience-centric strategies employed by the commercial market-
ing industry further exacerbate challenges for obesity prevention. This lifelong exposure to
food and beverage marketing heavily influenced nutritional beliefs and habits in today’s
youth, whereby exposure to healthy food marketing is an exception. Still, commercial
practices could offer insights into effective marketing and counter-marketing strategies.
SAVI
Description Swap Up Application
Component
Must include a specific example When you go to the gas station for
Specific of what the audience can do to breakfast, get a low-fat and low-sugar
change their behavior yogurt and a banana instead of a donut.
Swap fizzy water for fountain soda at a
Must be acceptable within the
fast food restaurant (instead of “Don’t
Acceptable cultural, familial, and social
eat at fast food restaurants or
contexts of the audience’s lives
convenience stores”).
Do not expect a teen to be able to
revamp their family meals or overhaul
Must be realistic within the their diet and instead focus on a
Viable constraints of our audience’s reasonable individual action they can
available time, budget and skills control, like what they buy outside of
the home and what is within their
budget.
If adopted, the message would Pick a side of carrots instead of fries
Impactful cause a meaningful impact on the (this is impactful because fast food is a
audience’s nutrition daily occurrence).
SAVI draws on existing theories of behavior change commonly used in prevention and
intervention efforts, such as Social Cognitive Theory and Social Norm Theory. Social Cog-
nitive Theory states that human behavior is the result of the dynamic interaction between
personal (thoughts and feelings), behavioral (health knowledge/skill) and environmental
factors (external) [45,46]. Self-efficacy, or one’s confidence in their ability to take action on
the specific behavior and, the perceived benefits of taking the action are critical to behavior
change. SAVI addresses these factors by ensuring health messages provide a clear and
logical plan of action for changing behavior, which are tailored to the perceived benefits,
personal motivations, and challenges of the audience [47]. Social Norm Theory posits that
incorrect perceptions of similar others’ behaviors normalize and justify an individual’s own
unhealthy behavior [48,49]. Research shows that perceptions about normative behavior
among peers is related to sugary drink and unhealthy snack consumption, as well as body
mass index (BMI) [49–51]. Similarly, SAVI assumes that people are emotional and socially
driven decision makers who need to see themselves and their circumstances reflected to
care about a message. Therefore, it is important to conduct audience research to uncover
the deeply held beliefs, norms, motivators, and perceived barriers surrounding current
nutrition, and potential pathways to behavior change.
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 10110 4 of 16
Table 2.
Table 2. Examples
Examples of
of Swap
Swap Up
Up Year
Year 11 campaign
campaign assets.
assets.
Table
Table 2.
2. Examples
Examples of
of Swap
Swap Up
Up Year
Year 11 campaign
campaign assets.
assets.
Table 2. Examples of Swap Up Year 1 campaign assets.
Asset
Asset Media Type
Media Type Audience
Audience Main Message
Main Message Media Flighting
Media Flighting
Asset
Asset Media
Media Type
Type Audience
Audience Main
Main Message
Message Media
Media Flighting
Flighting
Asset Media Type Audience Main Message Media Flighting
Swap aa slushie
Swap slushie for
for water;
water;
Swap
Swap a slushie
aa slushie for for
water;
sugar
Swap
sugar slows
slows you
slushie
you down
for and
water;
down and
:30 video ad Statewide water;
sugar sugar
slows youslows
down you
and February–March 2021
:30 video ad Statewide causes
sugar crashes/water
slows you down ener-
and February–March 2021
Fuel for
for Football
Football :30
:30video
:30 videoad
video adad Statewide
Statewide
Statewide causes
downcrashes/water
and causes February–March
ener- February–March 2021
2021
February–March 2021
Fuel causes crashes/water
you ener-
gizes you
causescrashes/water
crashes/water ener-
Fuel for Football
https://www.youtube.com/watc
Fuel for Football
Football gizes
https://www.youtube.com/watc
Fuel for gizes you
gizes you
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=99Ks8sG4dng
https://www.youtube.com/watc energizes you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
h?v=99Ks8sG4dng
h?v=99Ks8sG4dng
accessed on 31 May 2022
h?v=99Ks8sG4dng
v=99Ks8sG4dng
accessed on 31 May 2022
accessed
accessed on 31
on 31 May
May 2022
2022
Swap
Swap chips
Swap forfor
chips
chips for apples
apples
apples and
and
Swap
peanut
Swap chips
chips for
butter;
for apples
greasy
apples and
foods
and
:30 video
video ad
ad Urban and peanut butter;
peanut butter; greasy foods May–June 2021
2021
Sluggish :30
:30video
videoadad Urban
Urban peanut
slow youbutter;
greasy
peanut foodsgreasy
down/protein
butter; foods
slow you
greasy gives
foods May–June
May–June 2021
Sluggish :30 Urban slow you down/protein gives May–June 2021
Sluggish :30 video ad Urban slow you down/protein May–June 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watc
Sluggish
https://www.youtube.com/watc slowdown/protein
you
youyou energy givesgives
down/protein gives
https://www.youtube.com/watc energy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
h?v=1u-pjQI9NyQhttps://youtu.
https://www.youtube.com/watc you
you energy
energy
h?v=1u-pjQI9NyQhttps://youtu.
h?v=1u-pjQI9NyQhttps://youtu.
v=1u-pjQI9NyQhttps:
be/ONDIIPbUxKI
h?v=1u-pjQI9NyQhttps://youtu.
be/ONDIIPbUxKI
//youtu.be/ONDIIPbUxKI
be/ONDIIPbUxKI
accessed on 31 May
May 2022
be/ONDIIPbUxKI
accessed
accessed on
on 31
31 May 2022
2022
accessed on 31 May 2022
Swap
Swap a milkshake
for for
Swap aa milkshake
milkshake for water;
water;
:30 video adad Rural Swap
sugar
Swap a
water;milkshake
slows
a sugar
you
milkshake for
slows water;
you
down/water
for water; May–June 2021
:30video
:30 videoad Rural
Rural sugar slows you refreshes
down/water May–June 2021
May–June 2021
:30 down/water
Blank-Minded
Blank-Minded :30 video
video ad
ad Rural
Rural sugar
sugar slows you
you down/water
refreshes
slows
refreshes you
down/water
you
May–June
May–June 2021
2021
Blank-Minded you
refreshes
https://www.youtube.com/watc
Blank-Minded
https://www.youtube.com/watc
https://www.youtube.com/watch? refreshes you
you
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=IlgYwdg0DCg
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=IlgYwdg0DCg
v=IlgYwdg0DCg
h?v=IlgYwdg0DCg
accessed on 31
31 May
May 2022
h?v=IlgYwdg0DCg 2022
accessed on
accessed on 31 May 2022
accessed on 31 May 2022
Interactive
Interactive
Interactive Greasy foods slow you
Interactive Greasy foods
Greasy foods slow
slow you
you
website/
website/
Interactive
website/ Statewide
Statewide
Statewide down;foods
Greasy sugarslow
causes
you February
February 2021–current
2021–current
February 2021–current
website/ Statewide down;
down; sugar
Greasy
sugar causes
foods
causes crashes
slowcrashes
you February 2021–current
game
game
website/ Statewide down; crashes February 2021–current
game
game down; sugar
sugar causes
causes crashes
crashes
game
How Food
How Food Affects
Affects You
Food Affects You
How
How
How Food Affects You
Food Affects You
SnackingAsset
Tips Media Type Audience Main Message Media Flighting
https://www.instagram.com/sw
apupok/
accessed on 31 May 2022
2.3. Measures
Demographics. Participants reported demographics including age, sex, race/ethnicity,
and zip code of residence. Participants were labeled as “Urban” or “Rural” based on pop-
ulation density of the corresponding county [54]. See Figure 1 for county designations.
Figure
Figure 1. Map of
1. Map of county
county designation.
designation. Note:
Note:Star
Starindicates
indicatesatatleast
least11participant
participantself-reported
self-reportedaazip
zip
code
codefrom
from that
that county
county within
within the
the study.
study.
Obesity Risk. Adapted from the Oklahoma Youth Risk Behavioral Survey (YRBS; [7]),
participants were asked to describe their weight on a five-point scale (5—very overweight,
4—slightly overweight, 3—about the right weight, 2—slightly underweight, and 1—very
underweight). Responses were dichotomized as Overweight (4–5) or Not Overweight (1–3).
Swap Up Main Message Awareness. Prior to brand or advertisement questions, par-
ticipants were asked, “Have you seen any ads with the following messages or taglines?”
without revealing the source. Ten phrases featured in Swap Up advertisements were pre-
Figure 1. Map of county designation. Note: Star indicates at least 1 participant self-reported a zip
code from that county within the study.
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 10110 8 of 16
sented with a prompt to select all that apply (See Table S1 for items). Two types of variables
were calculated: (1) dichotomized Swap Up Main Message Aware; and (2) summed score
(0–10) indicating number of Swap Up main messages recognized.
Increasing Water. Participants who reported considering or trying to increase the
“amount of water” they drank in the past 30 days (from YRBS [7]), were provided with a
multi-select list of 11 items assessing which of the following actions they took (see Table S2
for items). A summed score was created, ranging from 0 to 11.
Decreasing Sugary Drinks. Participants who reported considering or trying to decrease
the “amount of soda/pop or other sugary drinks (e.g., Coke, milkshake, Frappuccino,
slushies)” they consumed over the past 30 days (from YRBS [7]), were provided with a
multi-select list of 14 items assessing which of the following actions they took (see Table S3
for items). A summed score was created, ranging from 0 to 14.
Increasing Fruits and Veggies. Participants who reported considering or trying to
increase the “amount of fruits/vegetables” they ate over the past 30 days (from YRBS [7]),
were provided a multi-select list of 12 items assessing which of the following actions they
took (see Table S4 for items). A summed score was created, ranging from 0 to 12.
Decreasing Greasy, Fried, and Sugary Foods. Although tangentially related to campaign
goals, we sought to document reports of decreasing unhealthy food consumption. Partici-
pants who reported considering or trying to decrease the “amount of greasy, fried or sugary
foods” they ate over the past 30 days (from YRBS [7]), were provided with a multi-select
list of 14 items assessing which of the following actions they took (see Table S5 for items).
A summed score was created, ranging from 0 to 14.
Swap Up Aided Campaign Awareness. To assess brand awareness, participants were
presented with a series of 8 health and nutrition-related brand logos and asked if they
heard of each brand, with “Yes,” “No,” and “I don’t know” as response options. To assess
ad awareness, participants were shown two of three campaign advertisements, which
included “Fuel for Football” to all participants, and either “Sluggish” for Urban teens or
“Blank Minded” for Rural teens. After each ad, participants were asked “Have you seen this
video before?” with “Yes,” “No,” and “I’m not sure” as response options. Participants who
selected “Yes” to the aided brand or aided video ad awareness questions were designated
as Swap Up Campaign Aware.
Swap Up Digital Engagement. Next, participants were asked, “Have you ever seen,
interacted, or shared any Swap Up social media posts, videos, or advertisements?” Partici-
pants were provided a list of 5 methods of digital interaction or engagement with a prompt
to select all that apply (See Table S6 for items). A dichotomous variable was created where
any selected response was considered Swap Up Engaged.
Swap Up Awareness/Engagement. To help address moderate multi-collinearity and in-
crease sample sizes for subgroups, a 3-level analytic variable was created that combined cam-
paign awareness (Y/N) and digital engagement (Y/N). Based on responses for the two items,
participants were categorized as Aware/Engaged (n = 75), Aware/Not Engaged (n = 67), or
Not aware (combination of not aware/engaged and not aware/not engaged; n = 57).
Swap Up Perceived Relevance to Nutritional Mindset. After viewing two Swap Up video ads,
participants were asked to rate agreement on a five-point scale (“Strongly Agree” to “Strongly
Disagree”) for 3 items assessing Swap Up’s relevance to them personally. Statements included
“Swap Up feels like it’s for people like me”, “Swap Up offers a new way to look at nutrition”,
and “Swap Up has information that could be helpful in improving my nutrition”. A composite
variable was created by averaging the 3 items (Chronbach’s α = 0.75).
outcomes and t-tests for continuous outcomes). To test whether awareness of main mes-
sages, perceptions of campaign relevance, and considering/trying to increase nutritional
behaviors differed based on campaign awareness/engagement, we conducted a series of
MANCOVAs, controlling for obesity risk and county.
3. Results
3.1. Demographics
Two hundred participants ages 13–19, living in Oklahoma, were recruited. The
mean age of the sample was 16.8 (SD = 1.4), with a majority being female (70%) and
White/Caucasian (59%). The final sample included 73% urban (n = 145) and 27% rural
(n = 55) participants, with 44% reporting to be overweight (see Table 3). Demographic
distributions of the sample were similar across urban and rural counties. However, non-
Hispanic Black teens were more likely to live in an urban county than a rural county (9%
vs. 2%, p < 0.05). The race and ethnicity composition of the sample was reflective of the
state of Oklahoma in 2021 more broadly (e.g., 63.8% White/Caucasian, 7.8% Black/African
American, 11.7% Hispanic, etc.) [55].
Table 3. Sample Characteristics.
Total Sample
Variable
% (n)
Total 200
Female 70% (140)
Age 16.8 (SD = 1.4)
13 years old 2% (4)
14 years old 6% (11)
15 years old 9% (18)
16 years old 22% (44)
17 years old 24% (48)
18 years old 33% (66)
19 years old 4% * (9)
Race/ethnicity
Hispanic 11% (21)
Non-Hispanic White 59% (118)
Non-Hispanic Black 7% (14)
Non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander 2% (7)
Non-Hispanic American Indian/Native
9% (17)
American
Non-Hispanic other or 2 or more races 12% (23)
County (Urban) 71% (142)
Obesity Risk (Overweight) 44% (87)
* Participants who were 18 years old at the pre-launch survey were invited to participate in the follow-up.
two out of five items significantly differed based on campaign awareness and all five items
significantly differed based on overall digital engagement status.
3.4. Do Message Awareness and Perceived Relevance Differ by Campaign Awareness and Engagement?
To better understand the role of campaign exposure and digital engagement on awareness
and relevance outcomes, the combined Swap Up awareness/engagement variable was entered
into a MANCOVA with main message awareness and perceived relevance to nutritional
mindset as dependent variables, controlling for obesity risk and county; Pillai’s Trace = 0.17,
F(390) = 9/15, p < 0.001. Significant univariate main effects of awareness/engagement were
detected for both dependent variables (ps < 0.05). Pairwise comparisons revealed that (a) both
aware/engaged and aware/not engaged teens recognized significantly more unaided main
messages compared to not aware, and (b) aware/engaged teens rated campaign relevance
significantly higher than not aware (see Figure 2 for all comparisons).
vance to nutritional mindset as dependent variables, controlling for obesity risk and
county; Pillai’s Trace = 0.17, F(390) = 9/15, p < 0.001. Significant univariate main effects of
awareness/engagement were detected for both dependent variables (ps < 0.05). Pairwise
comparisons revealed that (a) both aware/engaged and aware/not engaged teens recog-
nized significantly more unaided main messages compared to not aware, and (b)
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 10110 11 of 16
aware/engaged teens rated campaign relevance significantly higher than not aware (see
Figure 2 for all comparisons).
Figure 2. Swap Up main message awareness and perceived relevance by campaign aware-
Figure 2. Swap Up main message awareness and perceived relevance by campaign aware-
ness/engagement, controlling for obesity risk and county. Note: columns with different letters are
ness/engagement, controlling for obesity risk and county. Note: columns with different letters are
significantly different (p < 0.05); columns with the same letter do not differ significantly from each other.
significantly different (p < 0.05); columns with the same letter do not differ significantly from each
other.
3.5. Do Self-Reported Nutrition-Related Behaviors Differ by Campaign Awareness and Engagement?
Finally, to better understand the role of campaign exposure and digital engagement on
nutrition-related behaviors, the combined Swap Up awareness/engagement variable was
entered into a MANCOVA with four dependent variables (increasing water, decreasing
sugary drinks, increasing fruits and veggies, and decreasing greasy, fried, and sugary foods)
and two covariates (obesity risk and county); Pillai’s Trace = 0.114, F(386) = 2.92, p < 0.01.
Significant univariate main effects of awareness/engagement were detected for all four
dependent variables (ps < 0.05). Pairwise comparisons revealed that aware/engaged teens
were more likely to report trying or considering increasing water and decreasing sugary bev-
erages in the past 30 days compared to teens who were aware/not engaged and not aware.
Aware/engaged teens were also more likely to report trying or considering increasing fruits
and veggies in the past 30 days compared to teens not aware. Finally, aware/engaged teens
were significantly more likely than aware/not engaged and marginally (p = 0.08) more
likely than not aware teens to report trying or considering decreasing greasy, fried, and
sugary foods in the past 30 days (see Figure 3 for all comparisons).
aware/not engaged and not aware. Aware/engaged teens were also more likely to report
trying or considering increasing fruits and veggies in the past 30 days compared to teens
not aware. Finally, aware/engaged teens were significantly more likely than aware/not
engaged and marginally (p = 0.08) more likely than not aware teens to report trying or
considering
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 10110
decreasing greasy, fried, and sugary foods in the past 30 days (see12Figure
of 16
3
for all comparisons).
Figure 3. Swap
Figure Up awareness/engagement
3. Swap Up awareness/engagement on nutrition-related behaviors
on nutrition-related controlling
behaviors for obesity
controlling risk
for obesity
andrisk
county.
and Note:
county.forNote:
each for
behavior, columns with
each behavior, different
columns with letters areletters
different significantly different (pdifferent
are significantly < 0.05); (p
columns with
< 0.05); the same
columns letter
with the do notletter
same differdo
significantly from each other.
not differ significantly from each other.
4. Discussion
4. Discussion
4.1. Summary of Findings
4.1. Summary of Findings
The current study found evidence that Swap Up successfully reached and delivered
The current study found evidence that Swap Up successfully reached and delivered
nutrition education messages to Oklahoma teens within its first five months of implementation.
nutrition education
As a comparison messages
point, the to Oklahoma
CDC’s VERB campaignteens within
reached its first
the same levelfive months
of aided of imple-
awareness
mentation. As a comparison point, the CDC’s VERB campaign reached the
(72%) after two years [26]. Overall, teens felt the campaign was relevant and made for people same level of
likeaided
them.awareness
This finding(72%) after two
is especially years [26]
hopeful . Overall,
for an audienceteens
that felt
has the campaign
a series was
of major relevant
barriers
and made for people like them. This finding is especially hopeful
in the way of behavior change and is resistant to being “told” what to do. for an audience that has
Importantly, we found that various campaign outcomes and recent changes in self-
reported behaviors/intentions were most pronounced among participants both aware and
engaged with the campaign compared to those not aware. From a campaign planning
perspective, this suggests that engagement-driving media approaches could increase recep-
tivity and eventual behavior change. Similar to principles of the Elaboration Likelihood
Model, campaign planners should consider the extent to which engaging social media
assets and interactive games that utilize key messages may provide valuable opportunities
for education and persuasion [56]. As Swap Up implementation continues, it will be critical
to continue measuring self-reported digital and social media engagements across campaign
assets in order to better understand the relationship between engagement and behavior
change over time.
The ultimate goal of Swap Up is to see incremental trends of sustained, self-reported
behavior change, leading to prevention of adulthood obesity. In order to support this goal,
Swap Up is regularly refreshing content across brand platforms. Since the launch of the first
advertisements (Fuel for Football, Sluggish, and Blank-Minded), a new series of video ads
were introduced every six months. Additionally, new social and digital content is regularly
posted in order to mimic other brands and influencers that teens care about, aligning with
how they expect to consume media. This strategy is intended to increase the likelihood
of grabbing teens’ attention and creating opportunities for multiple engagements because
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 10110 13 of 16
there is consistently new content to interact with. With each new impression or engage-
ment, Swap Up is reinforcing relevant information, increasing the likelihood of multiple
exposures/engagements, and most importantly, normalizing nutritional messaging and
healthy swaps in teens’ everyday lives [57,58]. The hope is that campaign media and mes-
saging will reinforce teens’ current intentions to make healthy choices, ultimately leading
to behavior change [57–59].
It is possible that the observed effects of campaign engagement on teens’ behaviors are
actually in the inverse direction; teens who engaged with Swap Up may do so because they
are already receptive to nutritional messages and to increasing nutritional behaviors prior
to exposure. In this case, one would expect that teens who are not overweight may be more
aware/receptive to the campaign or be more likely to report increasing or considering nutri-
tional behaviors than overweight teens. However, we did not observe systematic differences
by self-reported obesity risk in the current sample, and instead utilized this variable as a
covariate to increase the accuracy of the statistical models. It will be important to continue
tracking campaign outcomes year over year, as well as individual characteristics of teens, to
better understand and observe the potential impact of Swap Up on Oklahoma teens.
4.4. Conclusions
Swap Up is the first known mass media nutrition education and obesity prevention
campaign to attempt to reach adolescents across an entire state, including rural and urban
audiences. The current study found evidence that, within five months of implementation,
Swap Up successfully reached and educated Oklahoma teens about nutrition, and exceeded
its Year 1 goals related to media delivery and receptivity. More importantly for the future of
Oklahomans’ health, Swap Up awareness and online campaign engagement was associated
with an elevated number of self-reported healthy behaviors compared to those not aware.
These findings provide a promising foundation for the campaign’s long-term goals of
documenting incremental changes in teens’ behavior and obesity prevention. Ultimately,
this research underscores the importance of the purposeful design and measurement of
digital and social media engagement strategies within teen behavior change campaigns.
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 10110 14 of 16
Supplementary Materials: The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https:
//www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/ijerph191610110/s1. Table S1: Swap Up main message awareness
items and frequencies; Table S2: Increasing water items and frequencies; Table S3: Decreasing sugary
drink items and frequencies; Table S4: Increasing fruit and veggie items and frequencies; Table
S5: Decreasing greasy, fried, and sugary foods items and frequencies; Table S6: Swap Up digital
engagement items and frequencies.
Author Contributions: Conceptualization, D.E.W.; formal analysis, E.J.; funding acquisition, K.A.B.
and S.W.-P.; methodology, D.E.W. and G.S.; project administration, D.E.W., K.A.B. and S.W.-P.;
supervision, D.E.W.; writing–original draft, D.E.W. and G.S.; writing–review and editing, D.E.W.,
K.A.B. and S.W.-P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding: Funding for this study and manuscript was provided by the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement
Endowment Trust (hc23-03), a voter-approved constitutional trust created in 2000 to invest 75% of
Oklahoma’s annual Master Settlement Agreement payment into improving health for generations
to come. Each evidence-based initiative utilizing the trust is designed to fight Oklahoma’s two
leading causes of preventable death—cancer and cardiovascular disease—by promoting healthy
eating, physical activity and tobacco-free lifestyles.
Institutional Review Board Statement: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration
of Helsinki, and approved by the Advarra Institutional Review Board (PRO10824; 9 June 2021).
Informed Consent Statement: Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.
Data Availability Statement: The data presented in this study are available on request from the
corresponding author.
Acknowledgments: The authors would like to sincerely thank those who provided thoughtful
guidance and feedback throughout the writing process, including Carolyn Stalgaitis, Mayo Djakaria,
Pamela Buchwald, Michelle Bellon, Jeff Jordan, Laura Beebe, and Dylan Jasna. We would also like to
thank the team responsible for the ongoing development, implementation, and research for Swap Up,
including Julie Bisbee, Kathleen Thomas, Allison Rubinoff, Erika Redke, Rebeca Mahr, and Lisa Ott.
In addition, we would like to thank the TSET Board of Directors for their programmatic direction and
support in improving the health of all Oklahomans, including youth.
Conflicts of Interest: D.E.W., G.S. and E.J. are employees of Rescue Agency, which receives funding
from Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust to implement the campaign and research
described in this manuscript. There are no other conflicts to disclose.
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