Positive Change in Healthy Eating Scores Among Adults With Low Income After Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program Participation.

Objective: Using 24-hour dietary recalls, compare Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2005 scores of Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program participants before and after 8-12 weekly lessons.

Design: Analysis of preexisting 24-hour dietary recalls information collected from October, 2012 through September, 2014.

Participants: Participants with complete pre-post dietary data (n = 122,961); subset of those with complete demographic data (n = 97,522).

Similar 24-Hour Dietary Recall Results from Low-Income Women When Collected by a Paraprofessional Nutrition Educator or Registered Dietitian Nutritionist.

Background: The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is a federally funded, community nutrition education program that assists the low-income population in acquiring knowledge and skills related to nutrition, food safety, food resource management, food security, and physical activity. Evaluation of EFNEP includes a 24-hour dietary recall (24HDR) administered by paraprofessional educators, yet protocols for most large-scale nutrition research studies employ registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) or individuals with educational backgrounds in nutrition or related fields to collect dietary recalls.

Objective: To compare 24HDRs collected by trained paraprofessional educators with recalls collected by an RDN.

Collection Methods for the 24-Hour Dietary Recall as Used in the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program.

Objective: Identify practices for the collection of the 24-hour dietary recall (24HR) as used by the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) to assess the fidelity with which dietary data are collected.

Methods: An electronic survey sent nationally to all 75 EFNEP coordinators to assess methodology for collection, staff training, and coding of 24HR.

Results: A total of 67 surveys were returned, 53 of which were usable: 57% of programs used multiple collection periods (previous day vs previous 24 hours), 36% did not use a consistent number of passes in recall collection; only 17% exclusively used the validated 5-pass method; 88% trained paraprofessionals for ≤8 hours on recall collection and >6 different training programs were used; and 86% of programs used multiple coders.