Nutrition Education Tool Research Articles

A new educational tool to learn about hydration: taste workshops for children.

Nutrition education contributes to children´s understanding andpractice of healthy lifestyles behaviors. Having a well hydration status is an essential topic, especially since children are a vulnerable population who are much more prone to dehydration than adults are. The approval of the Report on the EuropeanGastronomic Heritage: Cultural and Educational Aspects in 2014 served as startingpoint to work on innovative audio-visual and multimedia materials for children. TheSpanish Nutrition Foundation (FEN) and the Royal Academy of Gastronomy (RAG),in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport in Spain (MECD), developed educational videos for schoolchildren to learn about food, nutrition andgastronomy, specially, the importance of being hydrated. To develop a serial of videos for children between 3 and 9 years oldwith nutrition and cooking lessons to be used as educational resources in theofficial curricula. Fourteen chapters related to food, nutrition, gastronomy, physical activity and hydration to be used to record videos were designed and tested. A nutritionist, a chef and two puppets were the main characters acting in the videos. The chapters were assembled in nine videos that included five sections:introduction, video lesson, recipes -in case of hydration, recipes with differentwater content foods were recorded-, what have you learntand check your knowledge.A summary of the new educational material was officially presented at the SpainPavilion during the Expo Milano 2015. Moreover, they are included as education tool for teachers in the new PANGEI Programme (Food, Nutrition and Gastronomyfor Infantile Education) conjointly launched by FEN, RAG and MEDC. Taste workshops are useful as innovative nutrition education toolsto reinforce language, listening and motor skills as well as food and nutritionconcepts, and specially, the importance of being well hydrated.

Development and Evaluation of a Computer-Based Application for Nutrition Education Tool for South Asians with Renal Disease

Development and Evaluation of a Computer-Based Application for Nutrition Education Tool for South Asians with Renal Disease

Critical analysis of the diet quality of the Brazilian population according to the Healthy Eating Index: a systematic review

In light of the importance of studying instruments that assess the food quality of the population, this study sought to conduct a systematic review of the quality of the diet of the Brazilian population using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and duly analyzing its methodology and results. The major electronic databases were used for the selection of studies. After the searches with the key words, 32 articles were included in this review. The growing interest of the scientific community in addressing this issue was observed, with recent studies using this instrument in Brazil. Methodological issues of articles were evaluated and discussed taking into consideration the revised versions and adaptations of the HEI. Some common results were highlighted among the studies such as low consumption of fruit, vegetables and/or dairy products, and the wider consumption of meat and eggs, cholesterol, total fat and saturated fat. Among the articles that address the HEI and socioeconomic aspects it was seen that quality of diet improves both in accordance with the increasing level of education of parents and with the family income in the population studied. The HEI can be used to monitor changes in dietary patterns and also as a nutrition education and health promotion tool.

Taste workshops for children: importance of being hydrated.

Introduction: Spanish Nutrition Foundation (FEN) and the Royal Spanish Academy of Gastronomy (RAG) were the pioneers to present the idea of including gastronomy and healthy eating habits into the European education system. This initiative was approved on 12th march 2014 by the European Parliament and since then, both institutions, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, have been working on innovative audiovisual and multimedia materials for children. Nutrition education contributes to children′s improved understanding and practice of healthy lifestyles behaviors. One essential topic consist of having a well hydration status, and children are a vulnerable population much more prone to dehydration than adults. Objective: To develop a serial of videos for children between 3 and 9 years old with cooking and nutrition lessons and recipe demonstrations to be used as educational resources in the official curricula. Method: Videos focused on food groups, nutrients, gastronomy, active lifestyles and importance of being hydrated. A nutritionist, a cooker and two muppets participated in them. Results: The videos include five sections: introduction, theory class, recipes –in case of hydration we recorded recipes with different water content foods-, video summary and final test. We have presented a summary of them in Spain Pavillion in Expo Milano 2015 and will use as an education tool for teachers. Conclusion: Videos can be used as nutrition education tools to reinforce language, listening and motor skills as well as food and nutrition concepts, specially, the importance of being hydrated.

Measuring practical knowledge about balanced meals: development and validation of the brief PKB-7 scale.

As a high-quality diet is associated with a lower risk for several diseases and all-cause mortality, current nutrition education tools provide people with information regarding how to build a healthy and a balanced meal. To assess this basic nutrition knowledge, the research aim was to develop and validate a brief scale to measure the Practical Knowledge about Balanced meals (PKB-7). A pool of 25 items was pretested with experts and laypeople before being tested on a random sample in Switzerland (n=517). For item selection, a Rasch model analysis was applied. The validity and reliability of the new scale were assessed by three additional studies including laypeople (n=597; n=145) and nutrition experts (n=59). The final scale consists of seven multiple-choice items, which met the assumptions of the Rasch model. The validity of the new scale was shown by several aspects: the Rasch model was replicated in a second study, and nutrition experts achieved significantly higher scores than laypeople (t(148)=20.27, P<0.001, d=1.78). In addition, the PKB-7 scale was correlated with other nutrition-related constructs and associated with reported vegetable consumption. Test-retest reliability (r=0.68, P<0.001) was acceptable. The PKB-7 scale is a reliable and a valid Rasch-based instrument in Swiss citizens aged between 18 and 80 years for measuring the practical knowledge about balanced meals based on current dietary guidelines. This brief and easy-to-use scale is intended for application in both research and practice.

Eating well with Canada's food guide? Authoritative knowledge about food and health among newcomer mothers

Problem: Current versions of Canada's Food Guide (CFG) aim to inform a culturally diverse population, but it is not known how intended audiences from different cultural and linguistic groups within Canada's diverse population understand and apply its messages. Methods: We analyzed data from qualitative interviews conducted with 32 newcomer mothers of children aged 1–5 years to explore how conceptions of food and health change with migration to Canada among Spanish-speaking Latin American and Tamil Speaking Sri Lankan newcomers and may influence the appropriateness and applicability of Canada's Food Guide (CFG) as a nutrition education tool. We applied Jordan's model of authoritative knowledge to identify different forms of newcomer maternal nutrition knowledge, how they influence child feeding practices, and shifts causing some forms of knowledge to be devalued in favor of others. Results: Awareness of CFG differed between groups, with all Latin American and only half of Tamil participants familiar with it. Three distinct, overlapping ways of knowing about the relationship between food and health are identified within both groups of mothers: “natural” foods as healthy; influence of foods on illness susceptibility, and the nutritional components of food. CFG was found to be limited in its representations of recommended foods and its exclusive utilization of biomedical concepts of nutrition. Conclusions: Development of new, culturally competent versions of CFG that depict a variety of ethno-culturally meaningful diets and encompass both non-biomedical conceptualizations of food and health has the potential to enhance effective knowledge translation of CFG's key messages to an increasingly cosmopolitan Canadian population.

Updating the Dietary Guidelines for Americans: Status and Looking Ahead

Updating the Dietary Guidelines for Americans: Status and Looking Ahead

CHOP-International: an open access nutrition education tool for physicians, resident doctors, and medical and public health students

Dietary diseases drive some of this century’s most pressing and costly global public health challenges, ranging from malnutrition-related infectious diseases such as HIV infection to overfeeding and linked chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus and coronary heart disease. We seek to create clinically meaningful and cost-effective education tools to help treat such conditions in a manner that is both population specific and evidence based. Tulane University School of Medicine’s Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine (GCCM), a medical school-based teaching kitchen and research laboratory, utilized its novel collaboration of clinicians, registered dieticians, chefs, and culinary and medical students to create an open source international nutrition education resource comprised of region-specific recipes based upon the World Health Organization’s Nutrient Intake Goals. Using staple ingredients from three sample Millennium Development Goals regions, GCCM has developed sample recipes from three continents for proof-of-principle testing. The recipes include nutrition facts, interchangeable and optional ingredients, and salient nutrition education discussion points for students and medical professionals to use with a variety of patient conditions. Community-based participatory testing of the efficacy of this tool will allow for the refinement of the complete tool in the United States, followed by global expansion in coordination with physicians and students from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in Kenya, Indonesia, and Colombia.

KELUARGA SADAR GIZI (KADARZI) DALAM MENUJU GIZI BAIK UNTUK SEMUA

FAMILY NUTRITION AWARENESSTO ACHIEVE BETTER NUTRITIONAL STATUS FOR ALL Effort to improve nutritional status of the people in the last 20 year had been successfully achieved. The prevalence of Protein-Energy Malnutrition (PEM) decreased from 37.5% in 1989 to 27.5% in 2003. The prevalence of Iodine Deficiency Diseases (IDD) decreased from 27.9% in 1990 to 11.10% in 2003. The number of pregnant mothers with anemia and vitamin A deficiency were also decreasing. No sufficient data on other micronutrients status in Indonesia. Nutrition problem in Indonesia in general is still considered as a public health problem. Nutrition program in Indonesia has not been optimally involving nutrition education activities. In addition, the existing potential resources and sociocultural values in the community have not been taken into account in the implementation of nutrition program. Based on these past experiences, the Ministry of Health will focused its nutrition program to achieve Nutrition Awareness of all families (Keluarga Sadar Gizi, KADARZI) in order to reach to the improvement of nutritional status of the people. Nutritionally aware families are the families that able to know and overcome their own nutrition problem or to find aid from others to solve the problem. Following the development in new paradigm of nutrition program to achieve KADARZI, therefore the nutrition research activities should also in part focused on the development of nutrition education tools based on Communicator, Information, Education (CIE) Technics and Sociocultural aspects in the community. Key words : Family Nutrition Awareness (KADARZI), Communication-Information-Education (CIE)

An international survey of nutritional practices in low- and middle-income countries: a report from the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) PODC Nutrition Working Group.

Optimal nutritional status is important in children with cancer, as it can influence clinical outcomes. To improve the nutritional health of children and adolescents receiving treatment for cancer residing in low income and middle-income countries (LMIC), we investigated nutrition practices among these nations' institutions providing treatment for childhood cancer. A cross-sectional survey of nutrition practice was administered to staff members at institutions providing treatment for children with cancer between 2011 and 2012. Countries classified as low income and middle income were divided by geographical region. Final analysis was performed with 96 surveys, which included 27 institutions from Asia, 27 institutions from Latin America and Caribbean, 27 institutions from Africa and 15 institutions from Europe. The study found that 55% of institutions had a dietician available on their service. Access to dieticians, lack of nutrition resources and lack of nutrition education of staff were the main barriers to providing nutrition care in LMIC. Half of the institutions performed nutritional assessment at diagnosis, and the methods used varied widely. Twenty-nine percent of all institutions used complementary and alternate therapies within their clinical practice, and 35% of institutions reported that nutrition education was provided to patients and families. Priority areas for improving the nutritional management in LMIC include the following: (1) improved nutrition education and assessment tools for doctors and nurses; (2) increased availability of nutrition education resources for families and patients; and (3) identification of the role of complementary and alternative therapies in closing gaps in symptom management in these institutions.

Defining powerhouse fruits and vegetables: a nutrient density approach.

National nutrition guidelines emphasize consumption of powerhouse fruits and vegetables (PFV), foods most strongly associated with reduced chronic disease risk; yet efforts to define PFV are lacking. This study developed and validated a classification scheme defining PFV as foods providing, on average, 10% or more daily value per 100 kcal of 17 qualifying nutrients. Of 47 foods studied, 41 satisfied the powerhouse criterion and were more nutrient-dense than were non-PFV, providing preliminary evidence of the validity of the classification scheme. The proposed classification scheme is offered as a tool for nutrition education and dietary guidance.

The food pyramid adapted to physically active adolescents as a nutrition education tool

This study aimed to assess the understanding of the Food Pyramid Adapted to Physically Active Adolescents as an educational tool to improve nutrition knowledge. Adolescents engaged in sport training responded to a nutrition knowledge questionnaire before and after the intervention. The pyramid intervention group received the printed educational material, and the broad intervention group received the printed material followed by a lecture. As a result, mean initial nutrition knowledge was average (59.9 ± 18 points), increasing (p<0.001) after the intervention (69.1 ± 20 points) without significant difference between interventions. In conclusion, adolescents’ nutrition knowledge improved, even with the use of the Food Pyramid alone, indicating its use to promote nutritional knowledge.

Nutrition education intervention for low income HIV infected adults

Nutritional status during HIV infection is related to disease outcome and health status. While HIV disease continues to put infected individuals at nutritional risk, nutritional issues have shifted from undernutrition and weight loss to obesity and metabolic imbalances even though inadequacy in nutrient intake persists. Nutrition education targeted at improving dietary habits through improvements in nutrition knowledge, self-efficacy and readiness to change are critical to reduce nutritional risks in HIV infected patients. This pilot study, conducted between January 2012 and September 2012, evaluated the effect of a nutrition education on nutrition knowledge and behavior, dietary intake, and nutritional status of HIV infected adults. Forty-five individuals were randomized into intervention (30 participants) and control (15 participants) groups. They completed pretest, posttest, and 3 months follow-up assessments and surveys administered before and after the intervention program. Although there were no significant differences in some of the outcome measures between the groups, we observed a trend towards improved nutrition knowledge and self-efficacy scores in the intervention group compared to the control group. In addition, fewer individuals in the control group progressed in the stage of change continuum compared to the intervention group for all dietary habits assessed. This study serves as a platform for developing nutrition education tools to address the nutritional and health needs of this population.

Group Quiz: A Good Tool for Nutrition Education?

Group Quiz: A Good Tool for Nutrition Education?

Healthy Eating My Way – Online Nutrition Education Tool Based on Behavior Change Model

In 2013 the Dairy Council of California developed an online nutrition education tool titled, Healthy Eating My Way. The objective of the tool is for users to evaluate their food choices for nutrition adequacy and make a plan for improvement. It is designed for adult consumers, 19 years of age or older and is delivered in an online format. The tool incorporates a positive nutrition education philosophy and research-based behavior change model described on HealthyEating.org. The user receives individualized information including their body mass index, total energy expenditure and recommendations for servings from each food group based on their BMI and activity level. Users can learn more about each food group and use this information to make a nutrition goal and plan for improvement. They may also opt to receive 4 follow-up emails which provide additional nutrition information and encouragement. The tool was evaluated by senior level undergraduate nutrition majors and was deemed to be effective at achieving the stated goals. Students offered input for tool improvements which will be implemented. An online nutrition education tool can be effective at delivering positive, actionable messages that enable adult consumers to improve their food choices. The tool is unique because it contains enough information to inform action without being tedious and cumbersome. It is food-based rather than nutrient-based and links to recipes that can help users achieve their goals.

Nutrition education tools used in phenylketonuria: clinician, parent and patient perspectives from three international surveys

Three international surveys were developed aiming to identify the current nutrition educational tools used in the management of phenylketonuria (PKU) and the perceived effectiveness of these tools by clinicians, parents and patients. The first two surveys were distributed through the Metabolic Dietitians ListServe (pno-metabl@listserv.cc.emory.edu), and the third survey was distributed by international clinics and the National PKU Alliance website (www.npkua.org). A total of 888 responses (S1, n=88; S2, n=81; S3, n=719) were collected from all three surveys. The surveys represent participants from 17 countries, in Europe; North America (USA and Canada); Mexico; Argentina; Turkey; Australia; and Africa (Tunisia). A consistent decline in 'parents as role models' as an educational tool was observed starting at age 10years. Patients responded they feel their families are the most effective form of education, whereas handouts were selected as the least effective educational tool by patients. Parents responded they feel the most effective educational tool is one-on-one counselling. Patients and parents show a desirable trend in wanting to attend group clinic, even in centres where this type of educational tool is not offered. There was a discrepancy between clinicians and patient views regarding the perceived effectiveness of the nutrition education tools. Future research is needed surrounding the impact nutrition education may have on improved dietary compliance in patients with PKU.

Group Quiz: A Tool for Nutrition Education and Self-assessment

A quiz program is a test of knowledge especially between individuals or teams, as a form of entertainment. The quiz format provides motivation not only for participants, but also for the audience, because it provides 4 kinds of gratification and appeals: (1) Self-rating appeal: On a primary level, it serves as a tool of selfassessment of intellectual status or subject knowledge in relation to the others; (2) Social interaction: Questions can encourage social interaction because they can be discussed within the team and at audience level; (3) Excitement appeal: The appeal of winning a prize or being rated as superior among peers; and (4) Educational appeal: Quizzes serve as educational tools by encouraging thinking and learning. Applying collaborative and cooperative learning theories, group quizzes serve as effective means of imparting education. Quizzes engage participants in collaborative learning by helping them harness joint intellectual effort and group processing. They also promote positive interdependence andmotivate participants for cooperative learning. In addition, they improve recall of information, generate discussion, and prompt those with no knowledge (even among audience) to learn.

Development and Evaluation of the Nutrition Education Tool for South Asians with Cardiovascular Diseases

Development and Evaluation of the Nutrition Education Tool for South Asians with Cardiovascular Diseases

PROFILES: An Evidence-based Tool for Nutrition Education and Promotion

PROFILES: An Evidence-based Tool for Nutrition Education and Promotion

A study for development of a food exchange guide for Koreans to reduce energy, cholesterol and sodium, and to increase calcium consumption using one portion sizes of dishes frequently consumed by Korean adults

To help people achieve a balanced diet, various nutrition education tools have been developed and used. Among them, the food exchange system is most common and has been introduced to provide flexibility, balance and variety to a diet. It is based on the macronutrient value and serving size of each food. Foods are usually consumed by not a single item but by a dish cooked with various food items. And the cooking method and food combination can change energy and nutrient contents in a wide range. Also, the increase of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and osteoporosis has been important public health issue in Korea, so it is very important not only for energy consumption but also the consumption of other nutrients related to these chronic diseases. Considering these, the current food exchange system has certain limitations. In this study, we developed a food exchange guide using one portion size dishes frequently consumed by Korean adults. This is composed of four categories: 1) the food exchange list for reducing energy, 2) cholesterol, and 3) sodium, and 4) the food exchange list for increasing calcium. These results can be conveniently used by the general public, people who need diet therapy to manage chronic diseases or their dietary planners when making food selections for a nutritionally balanced diet.«This study was financially supported by the National Academy of Agricultural Science of Rural Development Administration»