A nutrition education intervention on achieving healthy weights among adolescents for nutrition educators for low-income families

Abstract

With the high prevalence of obesity in low-income Georgian adolescents, a nutrition education intervention addressing this issue is needed; however, such an intervention is not currently available in nutrition education programs targeted to low-income families in Georgia, such as University of Georgia (UGA) Cooperative Extension programs. This study developed, implemented, and tested a nutrition education intervention related to adolescent obesity on knowledge and confidence of nutrition educators for low –income families. The curriculum incorporated a variety of interactive learning experiences. Ten UGA Cooperative Extension providers participated in the intervention (mean age: 56.3 ± 6.96, 100% female, 20% African American, 30% Hispanic). Post-intervention, participants reported significantly increased knowledge (mean ± SD, 8.00±2.12 vs. 9.00±2.31, p= 0.016) and confidence in 3 of 4 topics related to adolescent obesity topics (p<0.05). This pilot study may serve as a model for adolescent obesity interventions for nutrition educators for Georgian low-income families.