Cooking For Your Life! A Family-Centred, Community-Based Nutrition Education Program for Youth With Type 2 Diabetes or Impaired Glucose Tolerance

Abstract

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVES To modify the Canadian Diabetes Association Pacific Area's Cooking For Your Life! program for youth with type 2 diabetes and their families, and to evaluate program satisfaction. METHODES Cooking For Your Life! is a community-based cooking and nutrition education program initially developed by the Canadian Diabetes Association for adults with type 2 diabetes. It has been well attended and resulted in excellent program satisfaction. Several methods were used to guide and evaluate modifications to the adult Cooking For Your Life! program for youth. These included review and recommendations from a steering committee, focus groups and a series of pilot classes evaluated via the collection of quantitative and qualitative data. Attendance was tracked at each class, and each participant answered a satisfaction questionnaire. RESULTS The modified program consists of 3 interactive, hands-on cooking classes and a Shop Smart tour co-facilitated by a dietitian and cook. A total of 36 people participated in the pilot program, including 15 adolescents and 21 of their family members. The majority of participants were satisfied with the course, enjoyed the recipes and expressed interest in taking a second set of classes. CONCLUSIONS These pilot results suggest that both youth and their families were satisfied with and committed to attending this community-based education program.