Identifying Participants Who Would Benefit the Most from an Adult Food-literacy Program.

Begley Begley,Butcher Butcher,Dhaliwal Dhaliwal,Bobongie Bobongie

doi:10.3390/ijerph16071272

Begley Begley, Butcher Butcher + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16071272

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Abstract

Food literacy programs aim to improve behaviours required to achieve a quality diet. The objectives of this study were to assess the demographic, food literacy related and dietary behaviour of participants enrolling in Food Sensations® for Adults, a free four-week food literacy program and identify the subgroup of participants who benefit most. Cross-sectional pre-program questionnaire data (n = 1626) from participants enrolling in the program was used to stratify into low, middle and high food-literacy tertiles. Factor scores from a reliability analysis of food literacy behaviours were then used to produce a composite score). Participants were 80.2% female, 56% aged 26 to 45 years and 73.3% from low to middle socio-economic areas. Demographic characteristics were not a significant predictor of the lowest composite food-literacy group. Those with the lowest composite food-literacy tertile score were more likely to have lower self-rated cooking skills, a negative attitude to the cost of healthy foods, lower intakes of fruits and vegetables and a higher frequency of consuming takeaway food and sugary drinks. Food literacy programs must focus on recruiting those who have low self-rated cooking skills, who consider healthy foods expensive and have poor dietary intakes and will most likely to benefit from such programs.

Highlights

A healthy diet is crucial for a person’s wellbeing and preventing chronic disease [1]
Foodbank Western Australia (WA) has been delivering an adult food-literacy program to target groups living in low socio-economic circumstances since 1997
The most common household composition was a couple with children (35.7%)

Summary

Introduction

A healthy diet is crucial for a person’s wellbeing and preventing chronic disease [1]. National surveys show that the diets of most Australians are not consistent with the national dietary guidelines [2]. Evidence suggests that poor quality diets are, in part, the result of a lack of knowledge and skills to plan, select and prepare healthy meals [4,5]. Food literacy is a term that has emerged to encompass the knowledge, skills and behaviours involved in planning, selecting, preparing and consuming healthy meals and snacks [6,7,8,9,10]. Food literacy is described as a platform to support the development and maintenance of healthy dietary behaviours [6]. The current challenge is to measure the multiple components of food literacy to assess what is required to educate people make to healthy food choices [11,12,13]

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