The Louisiana Family Nutrition Program (FNP) reaches up to 120,000 food-stamp recipients and other low SES individuals per year through direct and indirect nutrition education methods. To be effective in eliciting behavior change, a nutrition education program must be developed to be consistent with the needs, motivations, and concerns of the target audience; therefore, it is important that the needs, motivations, and concerns are being met by FNP. The purpose of this study was to determine, through the use of focus group discussions (FGD), whether nutrition education needs of FNP participants are being satisfied by the program. Nutrition education needs cover a broad scope of concerns, including: knowledge of the program, time and place of nutrition education sessions, nutrition education materials, and delivery methods. Five FGD were conducted with 34 FNP participants in five FNP parishes. The PRECEDE/PROCEED theoretical model was used to classify information from FGD into predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling factors. Results suggested that participants learned of FNP through the nutrition educator or community agencies such as Head Start and Office of Family Support. Although all participants were knowledgeable about the program itself, some indicated that lack of knowledge about meeting times and locations of nutrition education sessions was a barrier to participation. Other barriers to participation in FNP were minimal, but did include lack of transportation, lack of childcare, lack of interest, and time nutrition sessions were held. Participants families and personal barriers to dietary change influenced use of information in FNP. Program characteristics including, program availability, nutrition information, and delivery methods were enablers to FNP participation. Preferred delivery methods of nutrition education included a variety of methods. Information obtained from this study is used to provide recommendations for FNP.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-03302004-105649 |
| Date | 31 March 2004 |
| Creators | Holston, Denise Marie |
| Contributors | Michael Keenan, Annrose Guarino, Pamela Monroe, Carol O'Neil |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-03302004-105649/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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