Evaluation of a USDA nutrition education program for low-income youth.
OBJECTIVE
Examine effectiveness of a state's Youth Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) and assess the validity of the federal impact indicator method for reporting program outcomes.


METHODS
A randomized, controlled field trial of 229 groups with 5,111 youth, 9-12 years old, in community settings.


METHODS
6- to 8- hour, 7-lesson education experience with food preparation and tasting, an education experience typical of EFNEP in California.


METHODS
US Department of Agriculture (USDA) impact indicators: nutrition knowledge, eating a variety of foods, food selection, and food preparation and safety practices.


METHODS
Analysis of covariance model controlling for pretest, gender, age, and ethnicity, with group nested in condition.


RESULTS
Organizing responses by impact indicators, treatment participants made significant gains on the posttest compared to controls for 3 of 4 indicators (P < .008 to P < .0001). Gains were made by 34 to 68% of youth participants for 4 indicators. The impact indicator method for federal reporting compared favorably with results from a randomized controlled trial with groups nested in conditions.


CONCLUSIONS
This is the first report in the literature of (1) a large evaluation study of Youth EFNEP and (2) an estimate of the validity of the USDA impact indicator method for reporting program outcomes.
Townsend
Marilyn S
MS
Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8783, USA. mstownsend@ucdavis.edu
Johns
Margaret
M
Shilts
Mical Kay
MK
Farfan-Ramirez
Lucrecia
L
D017677:Age Distribution; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002140:California; D002648:Child; D053198:Child Nutrition Sciences / Q000193:education*; D005511:Food Handling / Q000379:methods; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D011203:Poverty / Q000208:ethnology; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017678:Sex Distribution; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D016885:United States Department of Agriculture