Healthy Choices for Every Body Adult Curriculum Improves Participants' Food Resource Management Skills and Food Safety Practices

Adedokun, O. A., Plonski, P., Jenkins-Howard, B., Cotterill, D. B., & Vail, A. (2018). Healthy Choices for Every Body Adult Curriculum Improves Participants’ Food Resource Management Skills and Food Safety Practices. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 50(6), 638–644. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2018.02.005

Objective: To evaluate the impact of the University of Kentucky's Healthy Choices for Every Body (HCEB) adult nutrition education curriculum on participants’ food resource management (FRM) skills and food safety practices. Methods: A quasi-experimental design was employed using propensity score matching to pair 8 intervention counties with 8 comparison counties. Independent-samples t tests and ANCOVA models compared gains in FRM skills and food safety practices between the intervention and comparison groups (n = 413 and 113, respectively). Results: Propensity score matching analysis showed a statistical balance and similarities between the comparison and intervention groups. Food resource management and food safety gain scores were statistically significantly higher for the intervention group (P .001), with large effect sizes (d = 0.9) for both variables. The group differences persisted even after controlling for race and age in the ANCOVA models. Conclusions and implications: The HCEB curriculum was effective in improving the FRM skills and food safety practices of participants.