Healthy Choices for Every Body Adult Curriculum Improves Participants' Food Resource Management Skills and Food Safety Practices

Objective: To evaluate the impact of the University of Kentucky's Healthy Choices for Every Body (HCEB) adult nutrition education curriculum on participants' food resource management (FRM) skills and food safety practices. Methods: A quasi-experimental design was employed using propensity score matching to pair 8 intervention counties with 8 comparison counties. Independent-samples t tests and ANCOVA models compared gains in FRM skills and food safety practices between the intervention and comparison groups (n = 413 and 113, respectively). Results: Propensity score matching analysis showed a statistical balance and similarities between the comparison and intervention groups. Food resource management and food safety gain scores were statistically significantly higher for the intervention group (P < .001), with large effect sizes (d = 0.9) for both variables. The group differences persisted even after controlling for race and age in the ANCOVA models. Conclusions and Implications: The HCEB curriculum was effective in improving the FRM skills and food safety practices of participants.