Cooking Matters for Families Revised to Improve Family Vegetable Outcomes

Abstract

A controlled-trial is being conducted to determine the effectiveness of Cooking Matters for Families™, revised to focus on vegetable preparation and parent behavioral strategies, on child vegetable intake, liking, and variety with outcomes measured at baseline, immediate post-, 6-, and 12 months post-course. Other dietary, environmental, and psychosocial outcomes based on the cooking intervention were also evaluated. A series of six weekly Cooking Matters for Families lessons focused on vegetable procurement and preparation was implemented for low-income parents (96% women, 60% high school education, 16% white) and youth (9-12 years, 62% girls, 12% white, 50% overweight/obese) between 2014-2016 in community-based settings. Lessons lasting about two hours were delivered by a chef and extension nutrition educator. Interim analyses are underway to compare baseline and immediate post-course outcomes for a combined group of intervention and control families (n = 89). Results will be reported for parent and child vegetable intake, parent and child liking and home availability for 18 vegetables used in the cooking course and 19 others, parent confidence in preparing vegetables and in using 10 vegetable cooking methods, overall parent and child cooking confidence, parent healthy food preparation and food resource management practices, and child interest in cooking. When twelve month post-course data are available from all families, final analysis will also be completed to compare all outcomes between the intervention and control groups. The results will be used to inform further dissemination of the Cooking Matters for Families program revised to focus on vegetable preparation and parent behavioral strategies for selected outcomes.