NCT03872752

Development and Implementation of Food Literacy Workshops in the Community

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 260 (actual)
• Sponsor: Hadassah Medical Organization · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 18 Years – 75 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Nutritional factors are responsible for 10% of the global health burden. In Israel, 31% of Jewish women and 52% of Arab women are obese. It is predicted that this generation will see increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) and decreased life expectancy. Sustained lifestyle changes including small changes in nutrition behavior, can substantially reduce the risk of CVD. Eating habits are affected by different abilities, circumstances, and skill sets, however, most nutrition programs focus on nutrition facts, and less on skills that can help translate knowledge to positive health behaviors and health outcomes. In the last decade a new field has emerged, Food literacy (FL), which acknowledges the importance of addressing skills such as nutrition knowledge, competencies, self-efficacy, literacy and health literacy, so as to enable positive change in nutrition behaviors. Food literacy, in summary, is the capability to make healthy food choices in different contexts, settings and situations. The proposed program seeks to improve nutrition behaviors in disadvantaged communities via a train-the-trainers program, that will provide community leaders with the tools necessary to disseminate FL skills through the framework of existing community social-structures.

Detailed description

Nutritional factors are responsible for 10% of the global health burden. In Israel, 31% of Jewish women and 52% of Arab women are obese. Diabetes rates are rising in accordance with the rise in obesity. Because of these factors, it is predicted that this generation will see increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) and decreased life expectancy. Sustained lifestyle changes including small changes in nutrition behavior, can substantially reduce the risk of CVD. Eating habits are affected by different abilities, circumstances, and skill sets, however, most nutrition programs focus on nutrition facts, and less on skills that can help translate knowledge to positive health behaviors and health outcomes. In the last decade a new field has emerged, Food literacy (FL), which acknowledges the importance of addressing skills such as nutrition knowledge, competencies, self-efficacy, literacy and health literacy, so as to enable positive change in nutrition behaviors. FL, in summary, is the capability to make healthy food choices in different contexts, settings and situations. The proposed program seeks to improve nutrition behaviors in disadvantaged communities via a train-the-trainers program, that will provide community leaders with the tools necessary to disseminate food literacy skills through the framework of existing community social-structures. In stage I of the study, community lay leaders from pre-existing community frameworks of Hebrew speaking communities and Arab lay leaders from East Jerusalem will undergo training in a manualized program that enables lay leaders to effectively disseminate FL skills through engaging visual and game-based tools. In stage II the lay leaders will implement the program in their communities.

Conditions

• Lifestyle Risk Reduction
• Health Behavior
• Food Habits

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	FL lay leader training and workshop implementation	Intervention components will include a training course for community lay leaders, enabling them to acquire the skills to lead food literacy workshops. This includes raising their knowledge about nutrition recommendations and food labels, raisin self efficacy, and improving nutrition related organization and preparation skills.

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-05-15
• Primary completion: 2023-07-01
• Completion: 2023-07-01
• First posted: 2019-03-13
• Last updated: 2025-12-16

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Israel