{"title":"Understanding How a College-Level Nutrition Course Impacts Food Security Status","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jneb.2024.05.030","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>The high prevalence of food insecurity in college students is a pressing issue. Increasing nutrition knowledge has potential to help improve factors related to food security. While a positive correlation between food literacy and food security status has been reported, little research has explored the impact of an existing college-level nutrition class.</p></div><div><h3>Objective</h3><p>To investigate how a college-level nutrition course impacts behaviors related to food-acquisition coping strategies.</p></div><div><h3>Study Design, Settings, Participants</h3><p>Students at the University of California, Davis were recruited from an introductory nutrition course taught both online and in-person (intervention) and other introductory courses (comparison). Students completed a pre-survey within the first two weeks of the quarter and a post-survey eight weeks later. Data were collected using a 65-item questionnaire that included several validated modules: the Money Expenditure Survey (MES), Coping Strategy Scale (CSS), Perceived Stress Scale, nutrition knowledge survey, and the USDA Adult Food Security Survey Module.</p></div><div><h3>Measurable Outcome/Analysis</h3><p>ANOVA with Tukey post-hoc corrections was used to assess differences across groups using STATA 13.0v. Significance was determined using p<0.05.</p></div><div><h3>Results</h3><p>Nutrition knowledge significantly increased within the in-person intervention group (n=282; 1.18 ± 5.24; p<0.01), and the online intervention group (n=373; 1.69 ± 5.12; p<0.01), while nutrition knowledge decreased in the comparison group (n=304; -1.41 ± 3.82 p<0.01). The CSS score significantly improved in the online intervention group (-2.62 ± 12.18; p<0.01), as compared to the other groups. In all groups, more students reported experiencing low or very low food security status from pre to post, with significant changes observed in the in-person intervention and comparison groups. Perceived stress also increased across all groups (p<0.05). There were no differences across groups in MES.</p></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Although nutrition knowledge improved in the intervention groups and CSS improved in the online intervention group, food security status decreased and perceived stress increased. Further analyses will determine the importance of nutrition knowledge on MES and CSS and their relationship to temporal fluctuations in food security status.</p></div><div><h3>Funding</h3><p>None</p></div>","PeriodicalId":50107,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1499404624001301","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background
The high prevalence of food insecurity in college students is a pressing issue. Increasing nutrition knowledge has potential to help improve factors related to food security. While a positive correlation between food literacy and food security status has been reported, little research has explored the impact of an existing college-level nutrition class.
Objective
To investigate how a college-level nutrition course impacts behaviors related to food-acquisition coping strategies.
Study Design, Settings, Participants
Students at the University of California, Davis were recruited from an introductory nutrition course taught both online and in-person (intervention) and other introductory courses (comparison). Students completed a pre-survey within the first two weeks of the quarter and a post-survey eight weeks later. Data were collected using a 65-item questionnaire that included several validated modules: the Money Expenditure Survey (MES), Coping Strategy Scale (CSS), Perceived Stress Scale, nutrition knowledge survey, and the USDA Adult Food Security Survey Module.
Measurable Outcome/Analysis
ANOVA with Tukey post-hoc corrections was used to assess differences across groups using STATA 13.0v. Significance was determined using p<0.05.
Results
Nutrition knowledge significantly increased within the in-person intervention group (n=282; 1.18 ± 5.24; p<0.01), and the online intervention group (n=373; 1.69 ± 5.12; p<0.01), while nutrition knowledge decreased in the comparison group (n=304; -1.41 ± 3.82 p<0.01). The CSS score significantly improved in the online intervention group (-2.62 ± 12.18; p<0.01), as compared to the other groups. In all groups, more students reported experiencing low or very low food security status from pre to post, with significant changes observed in the in-person intervention and comparison groups. Perceived stress also increased across all groups (p<0.05). There were no differences across groups in MES.
Conclusions
Although nutrition knowledge improved in the intervention groups and CSS improved in the online intervention group, food security status decreased and perceived stress increased. Further analyses will determine the importance of nutrition knowledge on MES and CSS and their relationship to temporal fluctuations in food security status.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior (JNEB), the official journal of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior, is a refereed, scientific periodical that serves as a global resource for all professionals with an interest in nutrition education; nutrition and physical activity behavior theories and intervention outcomes; complementary and alternative medicine related to nutrition behaviors; food environment; food, nutrition, and physical activity communication strategies including technology; nutrition-related economics; food safety education; and scholarship of learning related to these areas.
The purpose of JNEB is to document and disseminate original research and emerging issues and practices relevant to these areas worldwide. The Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior welcomes evidence-based manuscripts that provide new insights and useful findings related to nutrition education research, practice and policy. The content areas of JNEB reflect the diverse interests in nutrition and physical activity related to public health, nutritional sciences, education, behavioral economics, family and consumer sciences, and eHealth, including the interests of community-based nutrition-practitioners. As the Society''s official journal, JNEB also includes policy statements, issue perspectives, position papers, and member communications.