Dietary adequacy of homemakers participating in Extension's Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program in selected Tennessee counties, 1971

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between adequacy of homemakers' diets and selected personal and family characteristics. The study was also designed to determine improvement in homemakers' diets from initial to latest 24-hour food recall. The population of the study included all homemakers participating in the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program from the 10 origi-nal program counties in Tennessee who had been in the program for at least six months. The sample included 397 participant families, which represented a 5 percent random sample from each of the 10 original program counties. The 18 independent variables considered in this study were grouped under three headings: (1) personal homemaker characteristics, (2) family characteristics, and (3) factors associated with assistance to families. The dependent variable was adequacy of homemakers' diets in each of the four major food groups. A contingency table analysis program was used to determine the relation between adequacy of homemakers' diets for each food group and the independent variables. Chi-square statistical analysis was used to determine significance of relations between dependent and independent variables. These computations were done by the University of Tennessee Computing Center. The other statistic used in this study was the t-test. This was used to determine if there had been a statistically significant improvement from initial to latest 2A-hour food recall in the proportion of homemakers with adequate servings from each of the four major food groups. Major findings of this study were: 1. There were very significant increases from initial to latest 24-hour food recall in the proportion of homemakers with adequate diets, except for the meat group. Lower percents of homemakers in the study had adequate diets of milk and vegetables and fruits, than of meats and breads and cereals. 2. Young homemakers (under 25 years of age) had significantly less adequate servings of milk when they entered the program than other homemakers. 3. After being in the program for at least six months, younger homemakers had significantly more adequate intakes of meat than older ones. 4. Place of residence influenced the adequacy of homemakers' diets. Where significant differences existed, farm families had the highest percent of homemakers with adequate diets and urban families had the lowest percent with adequate diets. 5. Whether or not a family had a home garden influenced the dietary adequacy of the homemakers. Where significant differences existed, families who had home gardens tended to have more adequate diets than those families who did not have gardens. 6. Whether a family rented or owned their home influenced the adequacy of homemakers' diets. Where significant differences existed. homemakers from families who rented their homes tended to have less adequate diets, than those who owned their homes. 7. According to the income groupings used in this study, homemakers from families whose yearly income was $3,000 or more ini-tially had a significantly more adequate diet of breads and cereals, than those with incomes of less than $3,000. 8. Ethnic background influenced the adequacy of homemakers' diets. In all food groups where significant differences existed, except for the meat group, white homemakers tended to have more adequate diets than black homemakers. 9. According to the family size groupings used in this study, homemakers with six or more members in their families had the highest and those who lived alone had the lowest percents of homemakers with adequate servings of breads and cereals. 10. Whether or not there were family members over 6A years of age present in the household influenced the adequacy of milk intake. Homemakers from families with members over 64 years of age initially had significantly more adequate milk diets than those families who did not have elderly family members. 11. Whether or not a male adult was present in a household with dependent children influenced the milk intake. There initially were significantly poorer milk diets among those homemakers from families where no adult male was present. 12. Whether or not a family was on welfare influenced the dietary adequacy of the homemakers. In all food groups where significant differences existed, homemakers from welfare families tended to have less adequate diets, than those from nonwelfare families. 13. Whether donated foods or food stamps were available in a county influenced the dietary adequacy of the homemakers in certain food groups. Where the donated food program was available, homemakers initially had significantly more adequate intakes of breads and cereals, than those where the food stamps were available. On the other hand, the latter had more adequate servings of meat on the final recall. 14. Whether a family had been assisted by one or more than one program assistant influenced dietary adequacy. Homemakers who had worked with only one program assistant had a significantly more adequate intake of vegetables and fruits on the last recall than did those whose families had worked with more than one program assistant. 15. Adequacy of homemakers' diets was not significantly related to years of school completed by the homemaker, level of living index score, number of dependent children, change in families' monthly incomes, and recorded time in the program. Implications of findings, recommendations for use of findings, and recommendations for further study also were made.