The Effectiveness Of An Incentivized Program To Increase Daily Fruit And Vegetable Dietary Intake By Low Income, Middle-Aged Women

Author

Rebecca White, Minnesota State University - Mankato

Abstract

Little is known about the effectiveness of the SagePlus' Smart Choices Fruits and Vegetables Program's influence on behavior change and the effects of that behavior change on the cardiovascular health of the participants. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the SagePlus Smart Choices Fruits and Vegetables Program at increasing the number of fruits and vegetables in participants' diets and decreasing their cardiovascular disease risk factors. A nonexperimental, descriptive correlational design was used in this study. The Minnesota Department of Health provided data from 327 SagePlus participants that had re-enrolled in the SagePlus Smart Choices Fruits and Vegetables Program. Baseline and re-enrollment Cardiovascular Disease risks and per day fruit and vegetables serving consumption was assessed on all participants. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 12. Findings revealed low participation in the incentive card return program. Of those that returned at least one card, only 31% reached the goal of 1,000 servings and thus received the gift card. The majority of participants did not change their daily consumption of fruits and vegetables through the participation year. An additional serving of fruit (28%) and vegetables (24%) were added to the daily consumption of approximately a third of the participants at re-enrollment. There was not a statistically significant change d in the Framingham Risk Scores from the initial enrollment to re-enrollment.

Advisor

Diane Witt

Committee Member

Jennifer Demma

Date of Degree

2012

Language

english

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

Department

School of Nursing

College

Allied Health and Nursing

Recommended Citation

White, R. (2012). The Effectiveness Of An Incentivized Program To Increase Daily Fruit And Vegetable Dietary Intake By Low Income, Middle-Aged Women [Master’s thesis, Minnesota State University, Mankato]. Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/221/

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License