Mentor

Tryon, Lilly

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2022

Abstract

Abstract

By the year 2030, nearly one in every two adults will have obesity (Body Mass Index [BMI] ≥30 kg/m2.), and one in four adults will have severe obesity (BMI ≥35 kg/m2) (Ward et al., 2019). Equally troubling is that obesity poses a threat to the health of individuals, decreases the quality of life, shortens life expectancy, causes and worsens comorbidities, and increases all- cause mortality (Abdelaal et al., 2017). Studies have shown a link between BMI, nutritional knowledge, and dietary practices. Nutrition literacy is a newer term that refers to the complex relationship between nutrition knowledge, dietary behavior, and necessary skills. Nutrition literacy is critical to preventing and reversing obesity and needs to be studied. Primary care is an opportune place to address nutrition literacy. This project aimed to investigate the efficacy of delivering digital nutritional education. A pre- and post-questionnaire design was used to measure nutrition literacy in adults with a BMI ≥26 kg/m2 before and immediately after providing the educational intervention. A sample size of 16 adults participated. The intervention group (n = 8) gained nutrition literacy by 8.6% with a confidence interval of 95%. The outcomes from this evaluation project suggest that nutrition literacy in patients with a BMI ≥26 kg/m2 can be improved with web-based nutritional education.

Key Words: obesity, nutrition knowledge, dietary behaviors, nutrition literacy, digital learning, nutrition education, primary care

Download

Share

COinS