A risk-reduction nutrition course for adults.
This article details the development, delivery, and evaluation of a six-session nutrition course entitled "Eating Today for a Healthier Tomorrow." The course addressed nutrition practices associated with the reduction of risk for coronary heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and obesity. Teaching teams, consisting of an extension agent and a registered dietitian, were used in course delivery. A wide variety of printed and audiovisual teaching aids helped participants learn through discussion, goal setting, games, and food tasting. Evaluation components of the course included demographic and pre- and post-course food frequency information as well as an overall evaluation by each participant. Post-course evaluation data were collected at a reunion session held 2 months after course completion. One hundred forty-two of 195 participants (73%) completed the course and the evaluation. Three-fourths of the participants had a family history of at least one of the life-style diseases addressed by the course. The food frequency results indicated that participants made some significant changes in their food practices. They decreased the number of times they selected high-fat cheese, regular red meats, foods from the saturated fatty acid group, desserts, sodium-rich products, and tea/coffee (p less than .05), and they increased selection of low-fat dairy products (p less than .05). Further study is recommended to determine whether individuals maintain the dietary changes and how those changes affect others in the person's immediate environment.
University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center, Scottsbluff 69361.
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Boeckner
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Kohn
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Rockwell
D000328:Adult; D001296:Audiovisual Aids; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015930:Diet Records; D004435:Eating; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000178:diet therapy; D008297:Male; D008370:Manuals as Topic; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education*; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires