Advisor(s)
Kevin Fontaine
Committee Member(s)
Kathryn Kaiser
Lonnie Hannon
Shakia Hardy
Suzanne Judd
School
School of Health Professions
Document Type
Dissertation
Department (new version)
Health Education/Promotion (Public Health)
Date of Award
1-6-2025
Abstract
Introduction: African American (AA) adults living in rural, Southeastern communities experience disproportionately high rates of obesity-related chronic diseases. Many factors contributing to this health disparity are related to negative Social Determinants of Health that have individual and community level impacts. Nutrition knowledge (NK) and food skills (FS) are forms of health literacy that have been understudied in rural-dwelling AA adults. Understanding their relationships with self-perceived diet competence, autonomy, motivations, as well as diet behaviors and health outcomes could inform the development of future health research and policy. Methods: A scoping review was conducted to identify key trends and information gaps pertaining to nutrition interventions for the management or prevention of chronic disease in predominantly AA populations. Three qualitative focus groups were also conducted to tailor existing assessment tools for NK and FS to be culturally relevant for this population. The resulting questionnaires were implemented in a sub-set of participants from a larger multilevel church-based peer support intervention for the prevention of hypertension to assess relationships among NK, FS, diet change motivational factors, diet behavior, and weight-related health outcomes. Results: Trends identified among the literature reviewed were that much of the research in the field is conducted in women and in urban areas. More details need to be reported in the cultural tailoring of interventions. And among the existing literature, few studies were identified that measure NK and FS in predominantly AA populations, and of those that did, none were conducted in a rural setting. Qualitative research resulted in assessment tools that comprehensively measure NK and FS targeted for rural, AA populations. Lastly, using the culturally modified tools, we were unable to identify significant cross-sectional correlations between NK, FS, diet change motivational factors, diet behavior, and weight-related health outcomes as expected. Conclusions: The etiology of obesity in rural AA populations is complex and not fully explained. Further research is needed to alleviate the disproportionate burden of nutrition-related chronic diseases this population carries.
ProQuest ID
Recommended Citation
Robertson Lawson, Mary Catherine, "Evaluating The Contributions Of Nutrition Knowledge And Food Skills As Predictors Of Dietary Behavior, Diet Competence, And Diet Autonomy In Pre-Hypertensive Rural And Micropolitan Dwelling African American Adults In Alabama" (2025). All ETDs from UAB. 7305.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/7305
