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Nutrition and Other Protective Behaviors Motivated by Environmental Health Risk Awareness

BACKGROUND: Research findings have suggested that exposure to environmental pollutants contributes to increased health risks, which may be modulated by certain nutrition and other protective health behaviors. Nutrition professionals play an important role in effectively disseminating this informatio...

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Autores principales: Jones, Elizabeth W., Feng, Limin, Dixon, Jane K., Dixon, John P., Hofe, Carolyn R., Gaetke, Lisa M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5234471/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28090221
http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1874288201610010001
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author Jones, Elizabeth W.
Feng, Limin
Dixon, Jane K.
Dixon, John P.
Hofe, Carolyn R.
Gaetke, Lisa M.
author_facet Jones, Elizabeth W.
Feng, Limin
Dixon, Jane K.
Dixon, John P.
Hofe, Carolyn R.
Gaetke, Lisa M.
author_sort Jones, Elizabeth W.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Research findings have suggested that exposure to environmental pollutants contributes to increased health risks, which may be modulated by certain nutrition and other protective health behaviors. Nutrition professionals play an important role in effectively disseminating this information and in devising specific community-based nutrition education programs for audiences located in areas with environmental health issues. OBJECTIVE: To assess awareness of environmental health problems and motivation to adopt protective health behaviors for use in planning nutrition education programs for communities exposed to environmental pollutants. METHOD: Data were collected from a modified, validated Environmental Health Engagement Profile (EHEP) survey instrument administered to adults (n=774) participating in community events in Kentucky based on location relative to hazardous waste sites. RESULTS: The modified EHEP survey instrument showed good internal consistency reliability, and demographic characteristics were evaluated. Correlation analyses revealed significant positive correlations in all groups, separately and combined, between awareness of environmental pollution in an individual’s surroundings and the extent of concern that pollutants cause adverse health effects (P < 0.01) and between concern that pollutants cause adverse health effects and taking personal actions to protect against such environmental insults (P < 0.01). The groups having the highest level of awareness posed by pollution are those residing near federally designated hazardous waste sites. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that determining and expanding an audience’s knowledge and perceptions of environmental health risks will enhance effective nutrition education program planning.
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spelling pubmed-52344712017-01-13 Nutrition and Other Protective Behaviors Motivated by Environmental Health Risk Awareness Jones, Elizabeth W. Feng, Limin Dixon, Jane K. Dixon, John P. Hofe, Carolyn R. Gaetke, Lisa M. Open Nutr J Article BACKGROUND: Research findings have suggested that exposure to environmental pollutants contributes to increased health risks, which may be modulated by certain nutrition and other protective health behaviors. Nutrition professionals play an important role in effectively disseminating this information and in devising specific community-based nutrition education programs for audiences located in areas with environmental health issues. OBJECTIVE: To assess awareness of environmental health problems and motivation to adopt protective health behaviors for use in planning nutrition education programs for communities exposed to environmental pollutants. METHOD: Data were collected from a modified, validated Environmental Health Engagement Profile (EHEP) survey instrument administered to adults (n=774) participating in community events in Kentucky based on location relative to hazardous waste sites. RESULTS: The modified EHEP survey instrument showed good internal consistency reliability, and demographic characteristics were evaluated. Correlation analyses revealed significant positive correlations in all groups, separately and combined, between awareness of environmental pollution in an individual’s surroundings and the extent of concern that pollutants cause adverse health effects (P < 0.01) and between concern that pollutants cause adverse health effects and taking personal actions to protect against such environmental insults (P < 0.01). The groups having the highest level of awareness posed by pollution are those residing near federally designated hazardous waste sites. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that determining and expanding an audience’s knowledge and perceptions of environmental health risks will enhance effective nutrition education program planning. 2016-09-30 2016 /pmc/articles/PMC5234471/ /pubmed/28090221 http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1874288201610010001 Text en This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Article
Jones, Elizabeth W.
Feng, Limin
Dixon, Jane K.
Dixon, John P.
Hofe, Carolyn R.
Gaetke, Lisa M.
Nutrition and Other Protective Behaviors Motivated by Environmental Health Risk Awareness
title Nutrition and Other Protective Behaviors Motivated by Environmental Health Risk Awareness
title_full Nutrition and Other Protective Behaviors Motivated by Environmental Health Risk Awareness
title_fullStr Nutrition and Other Protective Behaviors Motivated by Environmental Health Risk Awareness
title_full_unstemmed Nutrition and Other Protective Behaviors Motivated by Environmental Health Risk Awareness
title_short Nutrition and Other Protective Behaviors Motivated by Environmental Health Risk Awareness
title_sort nutrition and other protective behaviors motivated by environmental health risk awareness
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5234471/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28090221
http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1874288201610010001
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