Nutrition education has the potential not only to increase nutrition knowledge and, potentially, healthy behaviors, among the elderly, but also to reduce the need for health and social services. The nutrition component described herein is part of an overall wellness program that focuses on increasing physical activity and healthy dietary behaviors among participants. We completed a four month nutrition intervention in a group of 33 low income elderly at the Leo Butler Center (LBC) (n=20) and Catholic Presbyterian Apartments (CPA) (n=13) in the fall of 2005 in Baton Rouge, LA. The Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) was used as the theoretical framework. Topics included in the intervention were MyPyramid and Dietary Guidelines for Americans, Food Labels, Nutrition and Aging, and Food Safety. Pre-post testing was used before and after each class to determine changes in knowledge. Food Security status and self-perceived eating habits, nutritional quality of the diet, and nutrition knowledge (pre-and post intervention) were also assessed. The majority of study participants were female (88%), African American (70%), and food secure (78%). Mean age was 66.60±10.93 years; mean weight was 86.36±21.9 kilos; and the mean number of classes attended was 1.88±0.86. For LBC participants, significant increases in knowledge (p<0.001) were shown for all lessons. For CPA participants, significant increases in knowledge were shown for all lessons with the exception of the Food Labels lesson (p=0.02, p=0.01, p<0.001 for MyPyramid and DGA lesson, Nutrition and Aging lesson, and the Food Safety lesson respectively). Significant differences were shown for self-perceived nutritional quality of the diet (p=0.01) and nutrition knowledge (p=0.02) for pre-post intervention results; however, no differences were shown for self-perceived eating habits. Two months after the intervention was completed, a follow up question to determine if there were any dietary changes was included. Respondents reported dietary changes, especially for increases in fruits and vegetables and use of food labels. Therefore, nutrition education in the elderly, especially on MyPyramid and DGA, and Food labels is recommended.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-05172006-102745 |
| Date | 01 June 2006 |
| Creators | Viteri, Gabriela M |
| Contributors | Pamela A. Monroe, Michael J. Keenan, Carol E. ONeil |
| 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-05172006-102745/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein 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 and in appropriate University policies, 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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