Date of Award

12-2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Legacy Department

Food Technology

Committee Chair/Advisor

Cason, Katherine L.

Committee Member

Dawson, Paul

Committee Member

Martinez-Dawson, Rose

Committee Member

Visser, Ryan

Abstract

African American women have been disproportionately impacted for decades by the obesity epidemic, which frequently leads to severe chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension. This increase in chronic diseases amongst African American women is the motivation for the design of a culturally tailored nutrition education (NE) program that combines a strong theoretical base with the use of technology such as the Internet, since its usage within the college aged African American community has rapidly increased. Little is known about the variables that motivate behavior change in regards to eating and physical activity habits among college aged African American women. The Online Nutrition Education for Sisters (ONES) program is a culturally tailored web-based nutrition education intervention for college aged African American women. Its theoretical framework includes health promotion constructs from the Theory of Planned Behavior, Social Cognitive Theory and Self-Determination Theory merged with instructional design principles from Cognitive Load Theory and Multimedia Learning. This one of a kind design can serve as a blueprint for other web-based nutrition education programs targeting minority populations with higher risk of overweight and obesity. Results from the 6-week pilot testing of ONES demonstrated that the intervention was well accepted and helped improve college aged African American women’s intention to change their eating related behaviors in the short-term; with participant satisfaction rates and motivation rates post intervention above 94%. Future research should explore the long-term effects of the ONES program to better determine how technology can be incorporated into nutrition education programs to enhance behavior change outcomes.

Included in

Nutrition Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.