Development and Implementation of Food Literacy Workshops in the Community

Hadassah Medical Center

Status: Completed

Conditions: Lifestyle Risk Reduction; Food Habits; Health Behavior

Treatments: Behavioral: FL lay leader training and workshop implementation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03872752

FL-HMO-CTIL

Details and patient eligibility

About

Nutritional factors are responsible for 10% of the global health burden. In Israel, 31% of Jewish women and 52% of Arab women are obese. It is predicted that this generation will see increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) and decreased life expectancy. Sustained lifestyle changes including small changes in nutrition behavior, can substantially reduce the risk of CVD.

Eating habits are affected by different abilities, circumstances, and skill sets, however, most nutrition programs focus on nutrition facts, and less on skills that can help translate knowledge to positive health behaviors and health outcomes. In the last decade a new field has emerged, Food literacy (FL), which acknowledges the importance of addressing skills such as nutrition knowledge, competencies, self-efficacy, literacy and health literacy, so as to enable positive change in nutrition behaviors. Food literacy, in summary, is the capability to make healthy food choices in different contexts, settings and situations.

The proposed program seeks to improve nutrition behaviors in disadvantaged communities via a train-the-trainers program, that will provide community leaders with the tools necessary to disseminate FL skills through the framework of existing community social-structures.

Full description

Nutritional factors are responsible for 10% of the global health burden. In Israel, 31% of Jewish women and 52% of Arab women are obese. Diabetes rates are rising in accordance with the rise in obesity. Because of these factors, it is predicted that this generation will see increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) and decreased life expectancy. Sustained lifestyle changes including small changes in nutrition behavior, can substantially reduce the risk of CVD.

Eating habits are affected by different abilities, circumstances, and skill sets, however, most nutrition programs focus on nutrition facts, and less on skills that can help translate knowledge to positive health behaviors and health outcomes. In the last decade a new field has emerged, Food literacy (FL), which acknowledges the importance of addressing skills such as nutrition knowledge, competencies, self-efficacy, literacy and health literacy, so as to enable positive change in nutrition behaviors. FL, in summary, is the capability to make healthy food choices in different contexts, settings and situations.

The proposed program seeks to improve nutrition behaviors in disadvantaged communities via a train-the-trainers program, that will provide community leaders with the tools necessary to disseminate food literacy skills through the framework of existing community social-structures.

In stage I of the study, community lay leaders from pre-existing community frameworks of Hebrew speaking communities and Arab lay leaders from East Jerusalem will undergo training in a manualized program that enables lay leaders to effectively disseminate FL skills through engaging visual and game-based tools. In stage II the lay leaders will implement the program in their communities.

Enrollment: 260 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18 to 75 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Women who are recognized leaders in the community will be included in training courses
• Participants for the Arab training program must speak and read Arabic
• Participants for the Hebrew-speaking training program must speak and read Hebrew

Exclusion criteria

- women who do not meet leadership criteria will be considered for training

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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260 participants in 1 patient group

Lay leader training in FL intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Community lay leaders from pre-existing community frameworks will undergo training in a manualized program that enables lay leaders to effectively disseminate food literacy skills through engaging visual and game-based tools in a food literacy workshop. Post training, lay leaders will implement the food literacy workshop in their communities.

Treatment:

Behavioral: FL lay leader training and workshop implementation