The Evaluation of an Educational Intervention on Food Label Literacy Among Parents of Children in an Outpatient Pediatric Clinic

1 online resource (81 pages) : PDF

2021

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Childhood obesity has been on the rise for decades and its effects have a negative impact on the health, psychology of the people with significant economic cost to the society at large. Many risk factors have been attributed to obesity such as quality and quantity of food, high calorie intake, sugary drinks, and sedentary lifestyle, but not much is emphasized on nutrition label literacy. This project is to evaluate the effect of an educational intervention to improve parents’ nutrition label literacy intended to help parents make healthy food choices for their children. This quantitative descriptive study was conducted at an outpatient pediatric clinic among parents and guardians using a paper and pencil survey. The participants completed a demographic survey for an overview of the participants’ background such as gender, age, and socioeconomic status. One of the aims of the project was to identify the participants’ nutrition label literacy by administering a FLLANK pretest. The goal of the project was to evaluate the impact of an educational intervention by assessing the participants’ performances in the FLLANK post-test. A total of 30 participants completed the pre and post intervention questionnaire. 53.3% (n=16) of the participants were above the age of 35 and 83.3% (n=25) were females. 73.3% (n=22) of the participants had a minimum of a 2-year college degree and 60% (n=18) earned more than $45,000/ year. 46.7% (n=14) of the participants identified as Hispanics or African Americans, respectively. 70% (n=21) of the participants indicated they understood food labels, while 60% (n=18) reported that they would buy food items based on how the packaging looked. Overall, the majority (86.7%, n=26) of the participants indicated that they would like to learn and understand nutrition labels despite the fact that the majority of the participants had at least a 2-year college education. The results showed that irrespective of socioeconomic status, the participants improved in their nutrition label literacy after the educational intervention. The long-term goal of this project will be to observe a consistent reduction in childhood obesity as the parents make healthy food choices. Keywords or phrases: nutrition labeling, parents’ food perceptions, childhood obesity, obesity prevention, adolescents and obesity, nutrition facts, food label utilization, nutrition label comprehension, health literacy, and parent food literacy.

doctoral dissertations

Nursing
Health education
Nutrition

D.N.P.

Childhood Obesity
Health Literacy
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition Labeling
Obesity Prevention
Parent Food Literacy

Health Services Research

Okoro, Florence

Jordan, Kathleen
Ighade, Andrew
Pilonieta, Paola

Thesis (D.N.P.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2021.

This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). For additional information, see http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/.

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Okocha_uncc_0694D_12765