Social marketing nutrition education for low-income population

ABSTRACT

As access to healthy food (or lack thereof) could be considered a social justice issue, social workers should be concerned about this issue and willing to collaborate with colleagues of various disciplines to address it. This study was a formative evaluation conducted to understand best practices, recommendations, and feasibility of a social-marketing-based nutrition education program tailored to the needs of adults with limited income. The authors report findings from focus groups conducted with Cooperative Extension Agents (CEAs) and region coordinators (n = 45) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) (n = 69) eligible participants to inform the development of a social marketing nutrition intervention for SNAP-Ed in Georgia. Barriers to healthy eating included cultural preferences, costs of healthy food, lack of time, and lack of availability. Social marketing has a potential to deliver effective and efficient SNAP-Ed targeted to large, limited-resource Georgians. Segmenting the low-income population based on geographical location as well as best methods for outreach can allow tailored messages to meet identified needs, lifestyles, and other variables that make these individuals most likely to respond to the program. Food security and nutrition education are topics of concern for all health care professionals interested in addressing complex health issues of many low-income adults.

KEYWORDS:

• Low-income
• SNAP-Ed
• nutrition intervention
• social marketing
• qualitative study
• formative evaluation
• focus groups

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the following people who helped us set up the focus groups: Rhea Bentley, Sylvia Davis, Suzanne Glenn, Shawanda Johnson, Christi Kay, Terry Metzler, Susan Moore, Roxie Price, Caroline Richardson, and Laura Smith. Thank you to Dr. Jerry Shannon for the map.

Financial Support

This project was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture SNAP-Ed.

Conflict of Interest

None.

Ethical Standards Disclosure

This study was conducted according to the ethical guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki and all procedures involving human subjects/patients were approved by the University of Georgia Institutional Review Board. Written informed consent was obtained from all research participants.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Food and Nutrition Service (42700-040-0000030629). This project was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture SNAP-Ed, Funding Source ID: 42700-040-0000030629.