Recipient Organization
UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA
(N/A)
CHAPEL HILL,NC 27514
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Poor dietary intake and food insecurity are public health concerns among college students. Cooking interventions for adults have been shown to improve dietary behaviors and food resource management, however, there is limited research on nutrition and culinary education programs specifically for college students. College students also represent future leadership in nutrition-related fields. The proposed integrated (research and education) project aims to develop and test a peer-led nutrition and culinary education curriculum for college students. We will conduct surveys and interviews with students and faculty/staff from multiple colleges to inform curriculum development. The curriculum will be based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and teach students how to prepare healthy meals on a limited budget. We will develop evaluation tools assessing process measures and outcomes including dietary intake, cooking, food resource management, and food security. We will assess the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention with a sample of undergraduate and graduate students to facilitate curriculum refinement for future studies and dissemination. The education component involves creating training resources for students related to developing, implementing and evaluating nutrition and culinary education programs. We will provide training and internships for students to help develop and deliver the curriculum, allowing them to build leadership skills. The curriculum can be offered through experiential learning opportunities (i.e. dietetic internships, public health practica, service-learning courses, other volunteer/internship opportunities). Curricular activities will be mapped to competencies from the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics and Council on Education for Public Health. The long-term goals of this project are to equip future nutrition and health professionals with knowledge, skills, and leadership abilities to advance the field while helping to prevent diet-related chronic diseases and improve food and nutrition security among college students.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goals of this project are to equip future nutrition and health professionals with knowledge, skills, and leadership abilities to advance the field while helping to prevent diet-related chronic diseases and improve food and nutrition security among college students. To do this, we will develop, evaluate, and disseminate a peer-led nutrition and culinary education curriculum for college students. The purpose of this Seed Grant is to conduct formative research to inform curriculum development, develop the curriculum and evaluation tools, and conduct a feasibility study.Research Objective 1: Conduct formative research and use this to inform the development of a peer-led experiential nutrition and culinary education curriculum for college students, and create corresponding evaluation tools.Research Objective 2: Assess the feasibility and acceptability of the curriculum and determine the reliability and validity of corresponding evaluation tools.Education Objective 1: Based on the findings of research objective 1, develop training resources for college students on developing, implementing, and evaluating nutrition and culinary education programs.Education Objective 2: Increase leadership and nutrition and culinary education skills among college students by providing training and internship opportunities related to developing and delivering nutrition and culinary education.
Project Methods
Research Objective 1We will gather input from college students and faculty/staff by conducting a sequential explanatory mixed methods study that connects and integrates online surveys with qualitative interviews. We will administer an online survey and semi-structured interviews with a diverse group of college students from campuses across the United States. The survey will be distributed in October and November of year 1 and interviews conducted in January- February of year 1. We aim to collect at least 5,000 survey responses and 10 semi-structured interviews with college students interested in participating in nutrition and culinary education and 10 interested in providing it. Information gathered through the survey and interviews will include current cooking and eating behaviors, food security status, facilitators/barriers to healthy eating and cooking, and other factors influencing cooking and eating behaviors such as dietary restrictions. Students interested in participating in nutrition and culinary education will be asked for input on: 1) Program logistics and 2) Types of information, skills, and recipes they are interested in learning. Students interested in leading lessons will be asked for input on: 1) Useful training/resources; 2) Ways they have gained/are interested in gaining experiential learning opportunities; and 3) What they are looking for in experiential learning opportunities. Interview guides will build upon the survey to further explore these primary topics. We will collect at least 100 online survey responses and 10 semi-structured interviews with faculty/staff in nutrition, public health, culinary arts, and other relevant programs. The online survey will be administered in October-November and interviews conducted in January-February of year 1. Information gathered will include 1) Beneficial topics/skills to include; 2) Existing nutrition or culinary education efforts on their campus 3) Experiential learning requirements where peer-led nutrition and culinary education may be beneficial; 4) Other ways the curriculum may be utilized; 5) Competencies/types of experiences that would be beneficial for students delivering the curriculum to gain; 6) Helpful resources for implementing the curriculum; and 7) input on logistics. Curriculum DevelopmentFindings from the formative work will inform curriculum development. The curriculum will be based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and teach students how to prepare healthy meals on a limited budget. The curriculum will incorporate constructs from Social Cognitive Theory. It will be designed to be peer-led and include hands-on nutrition and cooking activities. The curriculum will be flexible and offer options for tailoring to the needs of different student audiences. We will engage the advisory board during the curriculum development process. We will develop a pre-post survey to assess outcomes including self-efficacy for healthy eating, cooking, and food resource management; attitudes towards healthy eating and cooking; dietary intake; cooking frequency; use of food resource management strategies; and food security. The survey will collect participant demographics. Content validity will be assessed using expert review by 10 faculty members or nutrition educators with experience working with college students. Face validity will be assessed using cognitive interviews with a sample of 10 college students to determine if questions are understood as intended. The survey will be revised based on these results. Test-retest reliability will be assessed by administering the survey twice (approximately 1-2 weeks apart) to a sample of 50 college students. Research Objective 2We will hold 5 series of lessons with an overall sample of 50 undergraduate and graduate students at UNC Chapel Hill to assess feasibility and acceptability of the curriculum. Data Collection: Recruitment logs, registration forms and attendance sheets will be used to track process measures. Lesson observation forms will include a fidelity checklist assessing whether key lesson components were delivered, start and end times of lessons, lesson location, participant engagement, and open-ended comments on what worked well, challenges, and suggestions for improvement. Students will complete a pre-survey prior to the start of the series. A final session will be held after the completion of the last lesson in the curriculum where students will complete the post-survey as well as participate in a focus group. Focus groups will gather feedback on the impact of the curriculum on eating, cooking, and food resource management behaviors. The post-survey and focus groups will include questions assessing acceptability of the intervention. We will also conduct a focus group with college students who deliver the curriculum to assess what worked well and what could be improved. Analysis for Research ObjectivesInterviews and Focus Groups: Interviews and focus groups will be audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts will be reviewed, and a codebook developed for each type of interview using an inductive approach. We will code transcripts using Atlas.ti and develop a quotation report to assist with identifying key themes. Formative Surveys: Descriptive statistics will be calculated for closed-ended survey questions. Open-ended responses will be coded, and key themes summarized. Feasibility Testing: Recruitment logs and registration forms will be reviewed to assess which recruitment strategies appeared most successful. We will calculate mean number and percentage of lessons attended by participants, percentage of activities completed as planned, and mean engagement score for each lesson as well as across all lessons. Open-ended comments on participant observation forms will be coded and summarized for key themes. Changes in outcomes from pre- to post-survey will be assessed using paired t-tests and chi-square tests. We will use SAS version 9.4 for conducting statistical analyses. Education Objective 1We will develop training resources for the curriculum covering topics such as nutrition content, cooking skills, teaching techniques, program planning, participant recruitment, and program evaluation. Training resources will be informed by formative work and made available with the curriculum for future dissemination. Education Objective 2We will provide experiential learning opportunities to at least 25 undergraduate and graduate student interns at UNC Chapel Hill. In year one, interns will be engaged with curriculum and recipe development. Students will receive training in this area and review the results of the formative research and advisory board suggestions with the research team. The interns will work with the project team to develop an outline, learning objectives, and ideas for activities and recipes to include in the curriculum. Each intern will focus on developing certain components of the curriculum. The Project Director and Nutritionist will review and provide feedback to interns throughout the curriculum and recipe development process. Interns will also provide peer feedback on what the other interns are developing.In year two, interns will lead the nutrition and culinary education curriculum. Interns will receive training materials as well as participate in a hands-on training held by the Project Director and/or Nutritionist that includes leading a practice lesson and receiving feedback.We will evaluate the success of internship opportunities by surveying students to assess whether they perceived improvements in leadership abilities and skills related to nutrition and culinary education along with other ways they may have been impacted by their internships. We will also assess interest in careers relevant to public health nutrition and/or incorporating public health nutrition into their work (i.e. future physicians educating patients on nutrition).