Demonstration of an E-mailed Worksite Nutrition Intervention Program

Details

• Journal Article:
  Preventing Chronic Disease (PCD)
• Personal Author:
  Block, Gladys ; Block, Torin ; Wakimoto, Patricia ; Block, Clifford H.
• Description:
  Introduction
  
  Dietary fat and low fruit and vegetable intake are linked to many chronic diseases, and U.S. population intake does not meet recommendations. Interventions are needed that incorporate effective behavior-change principles and that can be delivered inexpensively to large segments of the population.
  
  Methods
  
  Employees at a corporate worksite were invited to participate in a program, delivered entirely by e-mail, to reduce dietary fat and increase fruit and vegetable intake. Behavior-change principles underlying the intervention included tailoring to the participant's dietary lifestyle, baseline assessment and feedback about dietary intake, family participation, and goal setting. Assessment, tailoring, and delivery was fully automated. The program was delivered weekly to participants' e-mail inboxes for 12 weeks. Each e-mail included information on nutrition or on the relationship between diet and health, dietary tips tailored to the individual, and small goals to try for the next week. In this nonrandomized pilot study, we assessed technical feasibility, acceptability to employees, improvement in Stage of Change, increase in fruit and vegetable consumption, and decrease in fat intake.
  
  Results
  
  Approximately one third (n = 84) of employees who were offered the 12-week program signed up for it, and satisfaction was high. There was significant improvement in Stage of Change: 74% of those not already at the top had forward movement (P <.001). In addition, results suggest significant increase in fruit and vegetable consumption (0.73 times/day, P <.001) and significant decrease in intake of fat sources (-0.39 times/day, P < .001).
  
  Conclusion
  
  This inexpensive program is feasible and appears to be effective. A randomized controlled trial is needed.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adult Consumer Satisfaction Diet, Fat-Restricted Electronic Mail Feasibility Studies Female Food Habits Fruit Goals Health Promotion Humans Intervention Studies Life Style Male Middle Aged Nutritional Sciences Occupational Health Reinforcement (Psychology) Vegetables

  More +
• Source:
  Prev Chronic Dis. 2004; 1(4).
• ISSN:
  1545-1151
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Volume:
  1
• Issue:
  4
• Collection(s):
  Preventing Chronic Disease
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f0d298d2404720848033d7428596739a17ffd4decb1f43b931194face9c1cd7d970a53498eb932dafa3bd0b21e5719f3e9c986ca05db82193456e58abbe892e5
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/19860/cdc_19860_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 420.39 KB ]