Effects of an Urban-gardening Nutrition Intervention for Food Insecure College Students (UGNIFICS)

Florida International University (FIU)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Obesity Prevention; Food Insecurity

Treatments: Behavioral: Gardening Nutrition Education Program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06822803

IRB-19-0134

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if an urban gardening nutrition education program can have positive health effects on food insecure college students. The main question it aims to answer is to determine whether an 8-week urban-gardening nutrition intervention can improve fruit and vegetable intake, nutrition knowledge, Body Mass Index (BMI) and body fat percentage in college students with food insecurity.

Participants will:

Fill out a questionnaire regarding demographics, food insecurity, fruit and vegetable intake, nutrition knowledge, self-efficacy and health beliefs.

Allow researchers to measure height, weight and body fat percentage Participate in a 1-hour education cooking or gardening session once a week for 8 weeks Receive text message reminders for meeting dates

Enrollment: 107 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Must be enrolled at FIU
• Age 18+ years old
• Literate in English
• Food insecure

Exclusion criteria

• Students who are student athletes
• Women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant in the next 6 months

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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107 participants in 2 patient groups

Gardening Nutrition Education Program

Experimental group

Description:

Intervention group participants completed in person 1-hour educational sessions, once a week for 6 weeks, and completed the post test and anthropometric measurements on the 7th week. The sessions included nutrition education, recipes, cooking demos, home gardening tips, and a take home vertical garden. A satisfaction survey was also administered at the last educational session (week 6). Multiple weekly sessions were scheduled to accommodate the participants' schedules. Sessions were capped at 12 students to allow for a more personalized experience. Text messages were used weekly to remind the participants and confirm attendance for each session.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Gardening Nutrition Education Program

Control Group

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants in this group did not receive the intervention.