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Published on: September 18, 2018
Evaluation of a USDA nutrition education program for low-income youth
Marilyn S Townsend1, Margaret Johns, Mical Kay Shilts
1Department of Nutrition, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8783, USA. mstownsend@ucdavis.edu
Objective:
Examine effectiveness of a state's Youth Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) and assess the validity of the federal impact indicator method for reporting program outcomes.
Design:
A randomized, controlled field trial of 229 groups with 5,111 youth, 9-12 years old, in community settings.
Intervention:
6- to 8- hour, 7-lesson education experience with food preparation and tasting, an education experience typical of EFNEP in California.
Outcome Measures:
US Department of Agriculture (USDA) impact indicators: nutrition knowledge, eating a variety of foods, food selection, and food preparation and safety practices.
Analysis:
Analysis of covariance model controlling for pretest, gender, age, and ethnicity, with group nested in condition.
Results:
Organizing responses by impact indicators, treatment participants made significant gains on the posttest compared to controls for 3 of 4 indicators (P < .008 to P < .0001). Gains were made by 34 to 68% of youth participants for 4 indicators. The impact indicator method for federal reporting compared favorably with results from a randomized controlled trial with groups nested in conditions.
Conclusion And Implications:
This is the first report in the literature of (1) a large evaluation study of Youth EFNEP and (2) an estimate of the validity of the USDA impact indicator method for reporting program outcomes.
