Effectiveness of an Adult Food Literacy Program.

Andrea Begley,Lucy Butcher,Ellen Paynter,Satvinder Dhaliwal

doi:10.3390/nu11040797

Abstract

Nutrition education programs aim to improve food literacy domains covering the planning and management, selection, preparation and cooking and eating of healthy food. Reviews indicate programs are effective but acknowledge challenges with evaluation of community focused delivery. Food Sensations® for Adults (FSA) is a free four-week nutrition and cooking program targeted at low-to-middle income Western Australians who would like to improve their food literacy. The aim of this research was assess how effective FSA is in changing food literacy and selected dietary behaviours. Statistical analysis identified a significant increase in postprogram scores for domains of planning and management, selection and preparation using factor scores (n = 1092). The proportion of the score increase in the postprogram scores compared to the preprogram scores was 10–25%. There was also a significant increase in self-reported fruit and vegetable serve intake, equating to an average increase of ¼ serve/day of fruit and ½ serve/day of vegetables. Of those classified as low food literacy, 61–74% improved postprogram scores in the three domains. FSA is effective in improving food literacy and dietary behaviours and the results add to the evidence base as to how effective these programs can be and for whom they should be targeted for future success.

Highlights

Nutrition education is the cornerstone of public health nutrition interventions [1], and increasingly there is a focus on improving practical food skills using experiential approaches
Questionnaire data was collected from 1850 participants—1625 preprogram (87.6%) and 1319 postprogram (71.1%)—resulting in 1092 participants providing both pre- and postprogram data
By examining three domains of food literacy behaviours we were able to distinguish different variables that are associated with participants who move from preprogram low food literacy to postprogram moderate or high food literacy

Summary

Introduction

Nutrition education is the cornerstone of public health nutrition interventions [1], and increasingly there is a focus on improving practical food skills using experiential approaches. Food literacy has emerged as a term to conceptualise the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to achieve healthy dietary intake/diet quality covering four domains of planning and management, selection, preparation and cooking and eating [2]. Reviews of programs addressing food literacy show a proliferation of community-based, government and other organisation funded efforts to teach people the planning, selection, preparation and eating behaviours thought to promote healthy diets [6,7,8,9]. Evaluation data from these programs need to be used in ways that can inform best practice in program delivery

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Discussion

Conclusion