Costs of Traditional Recruitment Methods Favor Examination of Novel Strategies to Recruit Low-Income Women to Nutrition Education Impact Studies Author(s): B. A. Lohse, K. Arnold, P. M. Wamboldt; Nutritional Sciences, The Pennsylvania State Univ., State College, PA Learning Outcome: Examine non-personnel costs associated with recruiting low-income women to a nutrition education program. Background: Current legislative and policy environments call for evidence of impact from nutrition education interventions. Non-personnel costs to recruit low-income women to a web-based nutrition education program were examined as part of an impact assessment. Methods: About Eating, a 5-lesson, web-based module on eating behaviors was studied in low-income women using a randomized, controlled design. Traditional recruitment methods (e.g., phone, yers, postcards) using low-income venues (e.g., WIC, career centers, discount stores) or state-supplied lists of supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) participants were used. Non-personnel expenses to recruit low-income women were calculated and documented. Websites unique to recruitment strategy enabled portal entry identication to detail costing and effectiveness. Results: Estimated reach from over 5 months of recruitment effort was 19,950 and was similarly divided between the two strategies. Phone calls, yers and postcards targeting SNAP lists recruited 64% of the sample. Of 1,010 recruited to the website, 588 were eligible; 302 completed the study. Postcards were the most expensive method to recruit from SNAP participant lists ($4.51 per recruit vs. $.20 for phone calls and $.35 for yers printed inhouse). Final non-personnel cost to recruit 648 to the website (384 eligible) was $5.06/ person. Final cost to recruit 364 to the website from low-income venues was $3.11/person using professionally printed yers ($2.89/recruit) and mileage ($.22/recruit). Conclusions: For low-income women, high costs associated with traditional recruitment methods may hinder nutrition intervention impact assessment. Attention to alternative recruitment methods (e.g., social media or smart phones) is suggested to effect evidencebased nutrition education. Funding Disclosure: USDA, PA SNAP-Ed (PA Nutrition Education TRACKS).
Effectiveness of Exercise Equivalents and Calorie Information on Vending Machine Usage among College Students Author(s): C. Platkin,1 E. A. Kelvin,2 M. Yeh1; 1Nutrition, CUNY Sch. of Publ. Hlth. at Hunter Coll., New York, NY, 2Epidemiology & Biostatistics, CUNY Sch. of Publ. Hlth. at Hunter Coll., New York, NY Learning Outcome: The participants will be able to describe the use of calorie labeling on vending machines. Background: Vending machines are common sources for snack food and beverages among students. Although these items are typically high in calories and low in nutritional value, vending machines offer little or no nutritional information prior to purchasing. This study tested the effect of providing some nutritional information on the vending machine display on sales of snack foods and beverages in an urban college with a young, multi-ethnic student population. Methods: Three intervention conditions were tested: calorie only, exercise equivalents (EEs) (dened as the amount of time doing particular physical activities that would be needed to burn off calories in foods) only, and calorie plus EEs. The information was displayed under each food and beverage item in the vending machines on a university campus for one, two, and two weeks, respectively. Washout periods were introduced between conditions. Mean number of food and beverage items sold within categories of calories (low, medium & high) and type of item (chips, candy, water, soda, coffee drinks, etc.) during each of the conditions was calculated and compared to baseline using the Mann Whitney U test to assess statistical signicance at 0.05. Results and Conclusion: No signicant differences in mean number of items sold were observed between the three intervention conditions and baseline by calorie or snack/drink category. Our results suggest that calorie and EEs labeling information on vending machines may not change point of purchase behaviors among college students. Future studies need to investigate nutritional information displays in different populations and different settings. Funding Disclosure: None.
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