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Effectiveness of a heart plus brain health-focused nutrition intervention among Latinas: a randomized controlled trial of Buenos Hábitos Alimenticios Para Una Buena Salud (Good Eating Habits for Good Health)

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Title	Effectiveness of a heart plus brain health-focused nutrition intervention among Latinas: a randomized controlled trial of Buenos Hábitos Alimenticios Para Una Buena Salud (Good Eating Habits for Good Health)
Author	Otilingam, Poorni G.
Author email	otilinga@usc.edu; otilinga@gmail.com
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy
Document type	Dissertation
Degree program	Psychology
School	College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Date submitted	2010
Restricted until	Restricted until 28 Mar. 2011.
Date published	2011-03-28
Advisor (committee chair)	Gatz, Margaret
Advisor (committee member)	John, Richard Jordan-Marsh, Maryalice Meyerowitz, Beth
Abstract	This study assessed the effectiveness of a nutrition intervention that emphasized the connection between heart health and brain health among Latinas. Public health researchers and practitioners have noted the rise in the number of Latinos being diagnosed with diseases involving the cardiovascular system and with risk factors that might portend future vascular disease. Vascular risk factors are important modifiable conditions for both vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. As diets high in saturated fatty acids contribute to vascular risk, change in diet could lower risk for vascular disease and dementia. A randomized controlled study with four conditions was conducted: two intervention conditions (nutrition workshops that emphasized heart health and brain health, or “heart plus brain”, and workshops that emphasized heart health, or “heart only”) and two wait list conditions (“pretest-posttest” and “posttest only”). Intervention conditions and the first wait list condition were assessed at pretest, posttest, and one-month follow-up. The heart plus brain condition received materials that emphasized the importance of vascular health in reducing dementia risk as well as information about the relationship of nutrition to heart health.The heart only condition received identical material about the relationship of nutrition to heart health; the relevance of vascular health to dementia was not introduced. The objective was to assess whether the two intervention conditions demonstrated improvements relative to the pretest-posttest wait list condition, and whether the heart plus brain condition demonstrated greater improvements in dietary fat outcomes compared to the heart only condition. The culturally-tailored curriculum developed for this study drew on the Health Belief Model, Social Cognitive Theory, and materials now in use by health educators.; A convenience sample of 100 Latinas were randomly assigned to condition, with 82 in the three repeated time conditions. Attrition for these three conditions was 10%. There was significant improvement in self-reported total fat and fat avoidance behaviors from pretest to follow-up in both of the intervention conditions compared to the pretest-posttest condition. There were not significant effects for dietary fat knowledge or dietary fat intentions. The completers analysis was corroborated with findings from an intent-to-treat analysis. The heart plus brain condition had significantly higher levels of perceived susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease at posttest compared to the heart only condition. However, there was no indication of greater gains for a heart plus brain intervention compared to a heart only intervention. Greater self vascular risk moderated greater dietary fat knowledge from pretest to follow-up for both intervention conditions compared to the pretest-posttest condition. Unexpectedly, the presence of young children living at home was significantly related to greater improvement in self-reported fat avoidance behaviors from pretest to posttest and pretest to follow-up. These results suggest that a culturally-tailored nutrition intervention can modestly improve self-reported total fat and fat avoidance behaviors, but that the addition of a brain health component may not increase effectiveness.
Keyword	clinical psychology; gerontology; nutrition education; health disparities
Geographic subject (city or populated place)	La Puente
Geographic subject (state)	California
Coverage date	2008/2009
Language	English
Part of collection	University of Southern California dissertations and theses
Publisher (of the original version)	University of Southern California
Place of publication (of the original version)	Los Angeles, California
Publisher (of the digital version)	University of Southern California. Libraries
Provenance	Electronically uploaded by the author
Type	texts
Legacy record ID	usctheses-m3484
Rights	Otilingam, Poorni G.
Repository name	Libraries, University of Southern California
Repository address	Los Angeles, California
Repository email	http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/
Filename	etd-Otilingam-4147
Archival file	uscthesesreloadpub_Volume14/etd-Otilingam-4147.pdf