Evaluation of a cooking skills programme in parents of young children – a longitudinal study

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate longitudinally the effectiveness of a cooking programme on self-reported confidence about cooking skills and food consumption patterns in parents of young children. Design: An evaluation of cooking programmes delivered by National Health Service (NHS) community food workers using a single group pre-test/post-test repeated measures design. A shortened version of a validated questionnaire at baseline, post intervention and 1-year follow-up determined confidence in cooking using basic ingredients, following a simple recipe, tasting new foods, preparing and cooking new foods on consumption of ready meals, vegetables and fruit. Setting: Deprived communities in Ayrshire and Arran, Scotland. Subjects: Parents of nursery age children, 97 % were female and ,45 years old. Results: One hundred and two participants had completed baseline and postintervention questionnaires. Forty-four participants contacted by telephone completed a follow-up questionnaire. In participants who completed all questionnaires (n 44), median confidence in four aspects of cooking increased significantly from baseline to post intervention (P , 0?001) but was retained at 1-year follow-up only for following a simple recipe and preparing and cooking new foods. Improved food consumption patterns were reported from baseline to post intervention (ready-meal consumption reduced from 2-4 times/week to 1 time/week, P , 0?001; vegetable consumption increased from 5-6 times/week to 1 time/d, P , 0?001; fruit consumption increased from 5-6 times/week to 1 time/d, P , 0?001) and remained at 1-year follow-up. Conclusions: The cooking programmes appeared to improve cooking confidence and food consumption patterns in the target group and some of these changes were retained after 1 year.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of the Ministry of Food cooking programme on self-reported food consumption and confidence with cooking

“…Many interviewed in the current study said they now cook more from scratch and consume less frozen food, ready meals and takeaways. The results from the current study appear to be consistent with the Australian Ministry of Food intervention which had a similarly large sample (24) , and a recent Scottish cooking programme by the NHS (20) . In these two studies cooking from basic ingredients and cooking confidence increased, the number of take-away or ready meals reduced and the intake of F&V increased after the intervention (20; 24) .…”

“…Within the quantitative results of the current study, the male participants reported significantly greater increases in cooking confidence, whilst interviews revealed an increase in nutritional awareness, homemade cooking, enjoyment in cooking and confidence in males. The recent nationally representative UK nutrition survey also found that young people (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34) have less confidence with cooking than other age groups in the UK (17) ; therefore they have more scope for improvement. However in our study, younger people (16)(17)(18)(19) improved in confidence less than 20-64 year olds.…”

Evaluating the effectiveness of a community-based dietary intervention in Nottingham

“…Data was collected at different points in time using varied methods such as self-reported questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The quantitative component reflects the most usual evaluation method of community-based dietary intervention as undertaken by practitioners delivering such services (Garcia et al, 2013 andBarton, Wrieden andAnderson, 2011). A self-reported questionnaire was used at pre intervention and post intervention which measured consumption of fruit, vegetables, fat and sugar consumption.…”

“…Moreover, this was shown to have been maintained at the follow-up stages at 3, 6 and 12 months (Caraher and Lloyd, 2013, Flego et al, 2014and Garcia et al, 2013. The course participants were also shown to have benefitted from increased nutritional knowledge (Garcia et al, 3 2013, Flego et al, 2014 as well as increased confidence in their cooking skills (Garcia et al, 2013, Flego et al, 2014, Wrieden et al, 2007.…”

“…Community-based nutrition and cooking skills interventions are one of the approaches used by public health nutritionists and public health specialists in strategies to address inequalities relating to food, nutrition and social determinants of health (Garcia, Vargas, Lam, Smith and Parrett, 2013). Something here about funding cuts?…”