Michelle B. Pierce

Parental Information, Motivation, and Behavioral Skills Correlate with Child Sweetened Beverage Consumption

OBJECTIVE To evaluate fit of the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) model applied to sweetened beverage (SB) consumption in children. DESIGN Cross-sectional. Parents completed a home beverage inventory and IMB survey regarding SB consumption. SETTING Health fairs, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children clinics. PARTICIPANTS Convenience sample of 198 parents of low socioeconomic status. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Independent variables included scores from 3 indices calculated from the IMB survey, information, motivation, and behavioral skills. The dependent variable was average child daily caloric consumption from SB consumption calculated from the home beverage inventory. ANALYSIS Structural equation modeling. RESULTS Parental information had direct and indirect negative relationships with SB consumption. Parental motivation was only indirectly associated with SB consumption mediated through behavioral skills. Parental behavioral skills had a negative correlation with SB consumption. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS In applying the IMB model to SB consumption, the authors found preliminary support for relationships between parental information, motivation, behavioral skills, and child SB consumption. Application of this model shows promise in identifying the complex interactions between factors influencing consumption behaviors. As nutrition educators frequently desire to alter behaviors, use of the IMB model may help with both targeting and assessment efforts.

The Husky Byte Program: Delivering Nutrition Education One Sound Byte at a Time

As food gatekeepers, parents have the opportunity to establish healthful eating patterns for their children. Nutrition education efforts directed toward parents will therefore have themost impact on family foodways. However, parents often have difficulty attending the traditional mode of education, nutrition classes, because of lack of child care, transportation, time, ormotivation.At theUniversity ofConnecticut, the authors responded to this problem by creating the Husky Byte program, designed to deliver short, unambiguous nutrition education messages. This innovative program considers time constraints, employs principles of adult learning theory, and is easily accessible to adults in community settings.

The Interaction of Social Support and Functional Status on the Dietary Quality of Elderly Women

Abstract LEARNING OUTCOME: To describe the synergistic effects of social support and functional status on dietary quality. Social support may promote positive health behaviors and encourage the use of available services. One function of social support is to buffer recipients from the negative consequences of life stressors. This study examined the buffering effects of nutrition specific social support on the relationship between functional status and dietary quality. A purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit 102 independently living, elderly women. Two structured interviews were conducted in the homes of the subjects to assess demographic information, functional status, food frequency patterns, and the providers and types of nutrition specific social support. Diet Quality Index (DQI) was the outcome measure. Multiple regression showed significant interaction effects of providers of social support and functional status on DQI (p 2 =.08) and types of social support and functional status on DQI (p 2 =.10). Furthermore, social support had a positive effect on diet quality even for women with minimal disabilities. In summary, social support appears to buffer older adults from the potentially negative effects of functional loss on diet quality. Health professionals and others should simultaneously consider social support and functional status when assessing nutritional risk.