Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Accomplishments

Short-term Outcomes

• Improved communication of EFNEP impacts to stakeholders
• Improved EFNEP evaluation methodology
• Alternative means of conducting EFNEP evaluation

Outputs

Presentations

1. Chen, Q., Bastian, G. E., Palmer-Keenan, D., & Fitzgerald, N. (2022). A Retrospective Pretest-Posttest Design as an Alternative Evaluation Method for EFNEP. Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA.

Publications

1. Fuller, S., Phelps, J., Baker, S. Walsh, J. (In-Press). Qualitative Analysis of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program’s 24-hour Dietary Recall. Journal of Extension
2. Chen, Q., Bastian, G. E., Palmer-Keenan, D., & Fitzgerald, N. (2022). A Retrospective Pretest-Posttest Design as an Alternative Evaluation Method for EFNEP. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 54(7), S59-S60.
3. Pybus, K., Gibbs, R. L., Franck, K., & Aragón, M. (In Press). Development and Evaluation of Impact Statements for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). The Journal of Extension.
4. Leschewski A, MC Aragon , S Baker, D Weatherspoon, K Barale, G Auld, and R Acquah-Sarpong. 2022. EFNEP Generates Economic Value Through BMI Improvement: A Cost-Benefit Analysis. Journal of Extension (Status: Under Review). 

Activities

Spanish FPAQ

The Spanish FPAQ workgroup lost three of five members this year, slowing down progression on this project. We are currently working on transferring data and funding from University of Florida to Texas A&M AgriLife Research.

A second round of feedback on the Spanish translation of the Food and Physical Activity Questionnaire was conducted with Spanish-speaking nutrition, physical activity, food safety, and food resource management experts. Questions were modified for clarity and adequacy of words and phrases based on expert feedback. The resulting final draft will be used to face validate the questions through cognitive interviews with EFNEP-eligible Spanish-speaking adults. 

Impact Statements

Four impact statements for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) were developed and evaluated. The statements were drafted after conducting literature reviews for core content areas of EFNEP that include diet quality, food resource management, physical activity, and food safety. This work was done based on the previous work completed by a previous iteration of this multistate group (NC2169) to develop the Food and Physical Activity Behaviors Questionnaire (FPAQ), which comprises 25 of the 30 questions used for adult EFNEP evaluation.  

We evaluated the statements by facilitating expert panels made up of subject matter experts and communication professionals (n=14) from 12 Land-grant Universities. These impact statements aim to support EFNEP and/or Extension Coordinators when communicating program value with key external stakeholders, including legislative staff and county leaders.

The statements were disseminated to all EFNEP Coordinators in four training sessions in August and September 2022. These trainings were facilitated by two members of the impact statement team, Karen Franck and Kylie Pybus.

Milestones 

FPAQ Retrospective Testing

Cognitive interviews for testing the retrospective pretest-posttest format were completed with 45 adult EFNEP graduates; Colorado State University, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, University of Guam, University of Maryland-College Park and University of Tennessee-Knoxville contributed to the recruitment and interviews of the participants. 

The results of the cognitive interviews were analyzed and shared with the NC3169 group; preliminary analysis results were presented as a poster at an international (SNEB) conference.

Based on the results of the cognitive interviews, the side-by-side design for the retrospective Adult Questionnaire (AQ) was adopted, and full length AQ questions were revised for the retrospective testing format.  With the approval of the national EFNEP office, a multi-layered data entry system was established within WebNEERS, EFNEP's reporting system, to enable data entry for both the retrospective and regular pre-post testing.

IRB approval was obtained for implementation of retrospective pre-post pilot testing. The doctoral student (Qing Chen) conducted training sessions with the EFNEP personnel (including supervisors and peer educators) from the participating states (CO, NJ, MD, and TN) in preparation for the retrospective testing. Pilot tests were conducted among 284 adult EFNEP participants from 4 states.

The retrospective pre-post testing data are currently being processed and will be analyzed in FY 2023. The planning of the follow-up cognitive interviews is underway with the aim to qualitatively explore potential biases (e.g., response shift) in the currently used prospective pre-posttests.

Spanish FPAQ

A second and final round of expert reviews were completed for the Spanish FPAQ, to ensure accurate translation. Ten experts in nutrition, physical activity, food safety, and food resource management, all of whom are bilingual in Spanish and English, provided feedback.

1. Fuller, S., Phelps, J., Baker, S. Walsh, J. (In-Press). Qualitative Analysis of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program’s 24-hour Dietary Recall. Journal of Extension
2. Chen, Q., Bastian, G. E., Palmer-Keenan, D., & Fitzgerald, N. (2022). A Retrospective Pretest-Posttest Design as an Alternative Evaluation Method for EFNEP. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 54(7), S59-S60.
3. Pybus, K., Gibbs, R. L., Franck, K., & Aragón, M. (In Press). Development and Evaluation of Impact Statements for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). The Journal of Extension.
4. Leschewski A, MC Aragon , S Baker, D Weatherspoon, K Barale, G Auld, and R Acquah-Sarpong. 2022. EFNEP Generates Economic Value Through BMI Improvement: A Cost-Benefit Analysis. Journal of Extension(Status: Under Review).