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Evaluation of the Small Changes, Healthy Habits Pilot Program: Its Influence on Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Behaviors of Adults in Louisiana

The community-based Small Changes, Healthy Habits (SCHH) program was developed to teach skills and techniques to help adults in Louisiana make and maintain small behavioral changes in their food selection, preparation, and consumption, and in physical activity routines. The content of this four-week...

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Autores principales: Adhikari, Praja, Gollub, Elizabeth
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8314334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34542462
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe11010019
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author Adhikari, Praja
Gollub, Elizabeth
author_facet Adhikari, Praja
Gollub, Elizabeth
author_sort Adhikari, Praja
collection PubMed
description The community-based Small Changes, Healthy Habits (SCHH) program was developed to teach skills and techniques to help adults in Louisiana make and maintain small behavioral changes in their food selection, preparation, and consumption, and in physical activity routines. The content of this four-week program included habit formation and goal setting techniques; physical activity guidance; strategies for a healthier home food environment; a grocery store tour focused on label reading for healthier food selections; basic knife and cooking skills. The program was piloted at ten sites throughout the state. A survey with 14 core items was applied before and after the program to evaluate participant acquisition of skills and behaviors associated with topic areas. A total of 47 participants provided complete data sets. Post-program, these participants reported increased confidence in preparing healthy meals at home (p = 0.04); changes in fats (p = 0.03) and salt (p = 0.01) intake; increased frequency of reading nutrition labels (32%); decreased frequency of meals eaten outside the home (Improvement Index = 0.27); and decreased time/day spent sitting (p < 0.05). These short-term results suggest that the SCHH program has potential to positively affect healthy eating and to reduce sedentary behaviors, both of which are fundamental to good health and wellness.
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spelling pubmed-83143342021-09-15 Evaluation of the Small Changes, Healthy Habits Pilot Program: Its Influence on Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Behaviors of Adults in Louisiana Adhikari, Praja Gollub, Elizabeth Eur J Investig Health Psychol Educ Brief Report The community-based Small Changes, Healthy Habits (SCHH) program was developed to teach skills and techniques to help adults in Louisiana make and maintain small behavioral changes in their food selection, preparation, and consumption, and in physical activity routines. The content of this four-week program included habit formation and goal setting techniques; physical activity guidance; strategies for a healthier home food environment; a grocery store tour focused on label reading for healthier food selections; basic knife and cooking skills. The program was piloted at ten sites throughout the state. A survey with 14 core items was applied before and after the program to evaluate participant acquisition of skills and behaviors associated with topic areas. A total of 47 participants provided complete data sets. Post-program, these participants reported increased confidence in preparing healthy meals at home (p = 0.04); changes in fats (p = 0.03) and salt (p = 0.01) intake; increased frequency of reading nutrition labels (32%); decreased frequency of meals eaten outside the home (Improvement Index = 0.27); and decreased time/day spent sitting (p < 0.05). These short-term results suggest that the SCHH program has potential to positively affect healthy eating and to reduce sedentary behaviors, both of which are fundamental to good health and wellness. MDPI 2021-03-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8314334/ /pubmed/34542462 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe11010019 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ).
spellingShingle Brief Report
Adhikari, Praja
Gollub, Elizabeth
Evaluation of the Small Changes, Healthy Habits Pilot Program: Its Influence on Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Behaviors of Adults in Louisiana
title Evaluation of the Small Changes, Healthy Habits Pilot Program: Its Influence on Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Behaviors of Adults in Louisiana
title_full Evaluation of the Small Changes, Healthy Habits Pilot Program: Its Influence on Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Behaviors of Adults in Louisiana
title_fullStr Evaluation of the Small Changes, Healthy Habits Pilot Program: Its Influence on Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Behaviors of Adults in Louisiana
title_full_unstemmed Evaluation of the Small Changes, Healthy Habits Pilot Program: Its Influence on Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Behaviors of Adults in Louisiana
title_short Evaluation of the Small Changes, Healthy Habits Pilot Program: Its Influence on Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Behaviors of Adults in Louisiana
title_sort evaluation of the small changes, healthy habits pilot program: its influence on healthy eating and physical activity behaviors of adults in louisiana
topic Brief Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8314334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34542462
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe11010019
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