Effect of a staff nutrition education program on the nutrition status of clients with mental retardation living in ICF/MR group homes

The specific aims of this research were to assess the nutritional status of a group of clients with mental retardation living in a unit of ICF/MR group homes, before and after a nutrition education training curriculum for their direct care staff. Seven ICF/MR group homes were used in this study, with three homes serving as the treatment group homes, and four homes serving as control homes. Eighteen clients with mental retardation from the three treatment group homes comprised the treatment group, and 22 clients with mental retardation from the four control group homes comprised the control group. A total of 40 clients were assessed for dietary, clinical, and anthropometric measures at baseline, and at two follow-up periods.; Prior to beginning the study, focus group interviews were used as a preliminary step in developing the nutrition education curriculum for direct care staff. Thirty-four direct care staff from the ICF/MR group homes in the unit participated in one of four focus group interviews. Results from these interviews indicated that the focus group approach was a qualitative means of obtaining valuable information from a representative group of direct care staff in an informal atmosphere, and was an effective technique in ascertaining relevant nutrition education needs specific to the group receiving it.; Nutrition knowledge of 61 direct care staff was assessed using pre- and post-test measures. Thirty-three staff from the three treatment group homes comprised the staff treatment group and 28 staff from the four control group homes comprised the control group. The treatment group staff received four weeks of nutrition education training. The control group staff received no nutrition education. Staff nutrition knowledge was measured at three times during the study, with the pre-test completed prior to, the first post-test completed immediately following, and the second post-test completed ten weeks following the nutrition education training.; Statistical analysis was performed using the t test to compare the pre- and both post-test scores for staff in the treatment group with the same scores for staff in the control group. The t test analysis was also used to determine any significant differences among scores on all three tests of nutrition knowledge for staff within the treatment group and for staff within the control group.; Average scores on the first nutrition knowledge post-test showed a significant improvement for staff who received the nutrition education curriculum when compared with average scores for staff in the control group. Ten weeks following the nutrition education curriculum, average scores for staff in the treatment group continued to be higher than average scores for staff in the control group; however, this increase was not statistically significant. For clients in the treatment group, significant improvements in the average dietary intake of total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and fiber were observed ten weeks after direct care staff received the nutrition education training. HDL-cholesterol also showed significant improvement for clients in the treatment group by this same time period. At the second client follow-up assessment, ten weeks following staff nutrition training, clients in the treatment group showed significant improvements in average values for dietary, clinical, and anthropometric measures. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...