Community-Based Designed Pilot Cooking and Texting Intervention on Health-Related Quality of Life among College Students

Makenzie Barr-Porter, Amelia Sullivan, Emma Watras, Caitlyn Winn and Jade McNamara ()
Additional contact information
Makenzie Barr-Porter: Department of Dietetics and Human Nutrition, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40514, USA
Amelia Sullivan: School of Food and Agriculture, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
Emma Watras: School of Food and Agriculture, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
Caitlyn Winn: School of Food and Agriculture, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA
Jade McNamara: School of Food and Agriculture, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 3, 1-13

Abstract: As emerging adulthood is an important area of life for developing healthful habits, the current study aimed to test the feasibility of a pilot program for improving health-related quality of life (HRQOL), food security, and diet quality among college students. Students 18–26 years old were recruited from two land-grant institutions to participate in an online survey and self-selected to participate in an intervention study. An intervention program was developed by student peers to include (1) a four-session cooking curriculum and a (2) semester-long text message program to share health resources on the relevant college campus. Diet quality, food security, and mentally healthy days were assessed. Baseline to post-program changes were assessed using paired t -tests. Cohen’s d was used to determine effect size estimates. In the full sample (N = 65), “days/month when mental health was not good” and “days/month feeling worried, tense, or anxious” significantly improved ( p < 0.05). Dietary quality measures of total short Healthy Eating Index (sHEI) score and total vegetable intake significantly improved throughout the intervention. Subsamples of (1) food-insecure participants (n = 22) and those with (2) dietary quality below the 50th percentile (n = 29) both had positive improvements following the program. Health promotion programs should be formed, adapted, or expanded in an effort to improve health among our next generation of workers. College and university environments should focus on mental health, diet, and food security among their constituents, particularly with regard to those at risk.

Keywords: nutrition assessment; college; food security; mental health; diet quality; emerging adults (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/3/293/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/3/293/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:3:p:293-:d:1350147

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().