Interventions in Nutrition Education and Skills

Interventions in Nutrition Education and Skills

Healthy eating can be difficult for people who live in poor, geographically isolated regions of the United States. In particular, people who live in Appalachia often experience food insecurity (i.e., their access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources at times during the year) and lack of access to healthy foods. This pilot study evaluates the effectiveness of motivational interviewing in helping individuals who live in these austere regions improve their diets in the context of limited resources and healthy food availability

Participants in three of the counties will receive an education/skills intervention paired with a form of coaching called motivational interviewing (MI) conducted by a trained registered nurse. Three similar counties that do not border any of the intervention counties are serving as controls (these counties receive the same nutrition education/skills intervention without motivational interviewing). All participants will receive cookbooks, cooking classes, food preparation tools, and prepared food dishes to take home to their families. The investigators will measure the impact of motivational interviewing on fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, saturated fat consumption and number of meals cooked at home.

Inclusion Criteria:

• People who live in one of six rural Kentucky food desert counties

Exclusion Criteria:

• <16 years old
• Unable to read/write English
• Any GI malabsorption disorder that prevents high fiber consumption