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Step 1 Worksheets                                                      Analyze issues and needs to state program behavioral goals

Before you design any nutrition education intervention, whether it is a few sessions or a larger program with several components, it is important to determine your intervention focus and identify your intended primary audience. When those have been determined, you will need detailed information on the behaviors and practices that contribute to the issue or problem you have selected as your intervention focus. Step 1 worksheets will help you conduct assessments to obtain the information you will need.

Think of yourself as a detective as you work through these worksheets. You are trying to find out as much as you can to determine which core behaviors or behavioral goals will be the targets for your educational sessions.

The information you collect may be quite extensive, depending on the scope and duration of your intervention, and will vary by category. Cite information sources (e.g., journal article, government report, observation, interview) used in the worksheet in a bibliography at the end of this step.

At the end of the Step 1 worksheets, you should have products for Steps 1A, 1B, and 1C as follows:

Step 1A:      Health issues or needs (one or two) and primary intended audience for the nutrition education intervention. Examples are “overweight in teenagers” or “low rates of breastfeeding in a low-income audience.”

Step 1B:      High-priority behaviors contributing to the selected issues. A set of one to a few nutrition-related behaviors or community practices that contribute to the health issue(s) that you identified.

Step 1C:      Statement of the program’s behavioral or action goals. The behavioral or action goals describe the purpose or behavioral outcomes for the program in terms of behaviors or community practices.

Use these worksheets as guides to help you identify program behavioral goals. Cite information sources in the text and add references to the bibliography at the end of the step. Electronic versions of these worksheets are available
at http://nutrition.jbpub.com/education/2e. If you are unable to access the worksheets electronically, you can write onto this blank worksheet or create a text document that uses the same flow of information.

Step 1A: Issues and intended audience

Describe the demographics of your audience (e.g., age, subgroup, ethnicity) and the location of the site.

 

Step 1 Worksheets                                                      Analyze issues and needs to state program behavioral goals

Analyze the priority health issues for your audience.

Research. What does scientific research suggest as the major health issues for this audience?		Policy. What do governmental guidelines recommend as priority health issues?
	+
+		+
Audience. What are specific health issues and needs related to the intended audience (from objective and subjective data)?		Organization. What does the organization and/or funding source state as key health priorities to address?
	+

 

 

Step 1 Worksheets                                                      Analyze issues and needs to state program behavioral goals

Determine one or two priority health issues for the program to address. From the issues you identified, prioritize based on greatest need, whether education can help, the importance to the audience, and importance to the organization.

 

Step 1B: Contributing behaviors or practices

Identify the behaviors or practices that contribute to the priority health issues.

Nutrition research literature		Monitoring data or consumer surveys		Information from intended audience
	+		+

 

Step 1 Worksheets                                                      Analyze issues and needs to state program behavioral goals

List the top behaviors or practices that contribute to the priority health issues. Then rate each issue on importance, modifiability, feasibility, and desirability.

Behavior/practice	Importance for health issue	Modifiable*	Feasible	Desirable to audience
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

*Consider complexity, relative advantage, compatibility, and observability of behavior.

Step 1C: Behavioral goals

Choose one or a few behavioral goals from the list above to be the focus of your program. State the selected behavioral goals and provide justification for the selection of your focus behaviors or community practices.

 

Step 1 Worksheets                                                      Analyze issues and needs to state program behavioral goals

 

References

 

 

Step 2 Worksheets                                                            Identify personal and environmental mediators of change

In Step 2, you will find out as much as possible about why audience members make the food and activity choices they do as well as what might motivate, facilitate, and support them to take on the goal behaviors. Theory provides you with the framework to ask the questions and organize the answers.

At the end of the Step 2 worksheets, you should have the following products for Steps 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, and 2E:

Step 2A:      Description of the sociocultural environment in which your audience lives.

Step 2B:      List of current behaviors, practices, policies, and environmental factors that are assets for the audience’s achievement of the program goal behaviors.

Step 2C:      List of thoughts, feelings, and skills that are rooted in theory that potentially mediate the audience’s motivation for and ability to achieve the program’s goal behaviors or community practices.

Step 2D:      List of potential actions for the program to take to provide environment and policy supports for the audience’s achievement of the program goal behaviors.

Step 2E:      Description of audience characteristics and list of resource considerations that will help you plan the practical aspects of your program.

Use these worksheets as guides to help you identify the personal mediators and environmental determinants of change. Cite information sources in the text and add references to the bibliography at the end of the step. Electronic versions of these worksheets are available at http://nutrition.jbpub.com/education/2e/. If you are unable to access the worksheets electronically, you can write onto this blank worksheet or create a text document that uses the same flow of information.

 

Step 2A: Audience’s sociocultural environment

Describe the social and cultural environment of the audience with respect to your goal behaviors. Consider the following questions: What is their life stage (e.g., teen, senior, mother), and how does this stage influence their eating and activity patterns? What is their living situation, and how does this influence their eating and activity patterns? What are the cultural beliefs that influence their eating and activity patterns? How does their lifestyle (e.g., work, family, recreation, social obligations) influence their ability to make healthy food and activity choices? How do their religious beliefs influence their eating and activity patterns?

 

 

Step 2 Worksheets                                                            Identify personal and environmental mediators of change

 

Step 2B: Individual and community assets

Identify existing behaviors, practices, environmental factors, and policies that support your goal behaviors.

Individual behaviors and community practices that support your program’s behavioral goals		Environmental factors and policies that support your program’s behavioral goals
	+

 

Step 2C: Potential personal mediators

Find out about your audience’s thoughts and feelings related to the motivational mediators listed below from psychosocial theories.

Potential motivating mediators from theory	Audience’s thoughts and feelings in relation to each mediator, specific to achieving your goal behaviors
Perceived risk or sense of concern
Perceived benefits (i.e., positive outcome expectations)
Perceived barriers (i.e., negative outcome expectations)
Affective attitudes (i.e., feelings about the behavior)
Perceived behavioral control/self-efficacy
Social norms (i.e., what others think participants should do)
Descriptive norms (i.e., beliefs of others about the behavior)
Other

 

 

Step 2 Worksheets                                                            Identify personal and environmental mediators of change

Find out about your audience’s knowledge, skills, and other factors from theory listed below.

Facilitating mediators from theory	Audience’s knowledge and skills in relation to each mediator, specific to achieving your goal behaviors
Food and nutrition knowledge
Food and nutrition skills related to the targeted behavior
Critical thinking skills
Self-efficacy
Goal setting (making action plans)
Self-assessment/self-monitoring skills
Reinforcements
Others

 

Step 2D: Environmental/policy supports

 

Find out how you could change the environmental and policy supports listed below to facilitate your intended audience in performing your goal behaviors.

Environmental and policy supports	How each environmental and policy support could be changed, specific to achieving your goal behaviors
Decision makers’ awareness and motivation
Social environment (e.g., family, networks, support)
Food environment (e.g., availability, accessibility)
Built environment (e.g., walkable streets, parks)
Organizational food policy
Information environment (e.g., media watched/read, setting)
Policy activities at the community and national levels

 

 

Step 2 Worksheets                                                            Identify personal and environmental mediators of change

 

Step 2E: Audience and resources

Add details about your audience that are important