A comparison of the characteristics of Giles County, Tennessee home demonstration homemakers and public housing homemakers and their use of recommended nutrition practices

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the level of nutrition practice use by home demonstration club members and public housing homemakers and compare their personal and family characteristics, method of receiving nutrition information, and interest of homemakers in attending meetings related to foods. Two random samples of 25 each were drawn from the populations of this study included 313 home demonstration club members and 297 public housing homemakers from Giles County. Personal interviews were conducted in the homes of the subjects. Differences between groups of 9 percent or larger were considered to be "consequential" and were discussed. The study revealed consequential difference between home demonstra-tion and public housing homemaker in several socioeconomic characteristics, number of children, participation in Extension Activities and use of Extension services, location of residents, age groups, marital status, major occupation of husbands, income, educational status, use of mass media, sources and number of sources of help, growing of gardens, church attendance and membership in organization. The findings indicated consequential differences in use of most of the sixteen recommended nutrition practices. Implications, recommendations for use of study finding and recom-mendations for further study also were included.