Heart Disease Nutrition Education Program Increases Familiarity with Heart-Healthy Lifestyle Recommendations

Abstract

Many Wyoming communities are isolated from population centers and services, resulting in an unmet need for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention nutrition education. Twentyeight percent of Wyoming adults report 3 or more modifiable CVD risk factors. Needs assessment data collected by Extension in 2 southern Wyoming counties identified a need for CVD-nutrition education addressing healthy eating, fruit and vegetable intake, heart-healthy diet, and low-fat cooking. In response, the evidencebased CVD nutrition education program, Eat to Your Heart’s Content (EYHC) curriculum was selected. TheEYHCcurriculumwasoriginally developed for older communityresiding women in North Carolina, so it was revised using Social Marketing Theory (SMT) principles for use as an Extension-delivered, group-based program. SocialMarketing Theory, a cyclic process that actively involves the target audience during program development, has 6 steps: (1) planning, (2) delivery-method selection, (3) material development, (4) implementation, (5) evaluation, and (6) program revision. For this project, Steps 2 and 3 involved the administration in the 2 county areas of a 10-minute survey (print and online) that inquired about positive and negative programming attributes, participation motivators and barriers, CVD-related topics of interest, and desired program length. Results identified desire for current, relevant and easy-toimplement, science-based information presented in a creative manner, with