A Research/Engagement Study Maximizing Nutrition Education to Meet Child and Parent Dietary Quality and Food Security Needs

Objective The study has two objectives. First, adult-focused direct Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) on adult and child dietary quality and household food security will be determined using a longitudinal (1-year) randomized, waitlist controlled, SNAP-Ed intervention of 4 core lessons aligning to SNAP-Ed Plan Guidance including 275 Indiana parent/child pairs. The second objective includes creating supplementary on-demand SNAP-Ed material to improve healthful diets in households with children. Description Nutrition education to improve diet quality and food security among limited resource families is provided to adults through the SNAP-Ed but potential changes among adults and their children have not been evaluated nor has focused SNAP-Ed content to households with children been created. Evaluation For objective 1, at baseline and one year later repeated 24-hour dietary recalls will be collected to estimate usual intake and dietary quality with the Healthy Eating Index and the U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module will be used to estimate food security. Linear mixed models will be used to evaluate potential change in the intervention and control group over time. For objective 2, information from a scoping review of the literature identifying factors contributing to diet and food insecurity in low-resource households will be combined with the experimental study results to inform the creation of new SNAP-Ed material that will be delivered and evaluated using a pre-post-intervention design. Results Recruitment for the study and intervention delivery is ongoing. The scoping review was completed to show that education on parent/child behaviors is linked to food procurement/preparation and that household organization and planning with regard to meals and food holds promise for diet and food security improvement. Conclusions and Implications Future nutrition policy and programming may be informed by this SNAP-Ed intervention study among adults and their children and the creation of SNAP-Ed programming to foster healthful dietary behavior and food security.