Effect of a nutritional food education strategy on family consumption of local food in the village of El Cebollal, year 2022

Abstract

Introduction: Food consumption is inadequate among a large proportion of the population in the department of Baja Verapaz, Guatemala, especially in households in rural areas. Promoting the consumption of healthy local foods is considered a strategy to improve health in this population.
Objective: To evaluate changes in household food consumption in the village of El Cebollal after implementing a nutrition and food education intervention.
Method: An intervention study with a before–after block design was conducted. Mothers from households in the village were interviewed at both time points. The operationalized variables were: food consumption score and weekly frequencies of consumption of vegetables, fruits, meats, dairy products, and unhealthy foods. Frequency distributions and Student’s t test for paired samples were used.
Results: An educational intervention strategy was developed consisting of three educational sessions, based on the results of the pre-intervention assessment. Prior to the intervention, for most households the weekly frequency of consumption of fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy products was null, while the weekly frequency of consumption of unhealthy foods was very high. After the intervention, the weekly frequency of consumption of fruits and vegetables was very low; the weekly frequency of consumption of meats and dairy products was low; and the weekly frequency of consumption of unhealthy foods remained very high.
Conclusions: Changes were observed in the variables analyzed after the intervention, with the exception of the frequency of consumption of unhealthy foods.