Evaluation of Nutritional Behavior Change: An Intervention Study of Rural Extension Clientele

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the impact of an Extension program. The goal was to explore whether the intervention of an Extension program impacts health behavior change in program participants to a greater extent than in a control group.

A fifteen-week intervention study was used with quantitative methods to investigate health behavior change. The population for this study consisted of adults living in a rural southeastern North Carolina county. Participants were purposefully recruited and referred by a local family physician practice to participate in the intervention study and control groups. The intervention group entailed twenty-seven participants and the control group consisted of twenty-one participants. The sample was identified with previous 'at risk' conditions of nutrition-related diseases or potential risk. Intervention and control groups were selected with variance in age, gender and ethnicity based on voluntary participation in the program. Comparison of means, distributions, and standard deviations and the student t-test distribution were the primary statistical procedures.

Major conclusions that emerged from the findings were: (1) Results from a nutrition education intervention to produce a change in program participants' health behavior were found to be inconclusive due to limitations within the study. (2) Program participants' health behaviors differing from non-program participants were inconclusive due to dosage levels. (3) Demographic variables do not influence behavior change.

(4) Familial factors do not contribute to adoption of practices. Recommendations for the teaching profession and for further research are presented in the final chapter.