Promoting sufficient fruit and vegetable intake among teachers: An intervention using the Solomon Four Group Design

ABSTRACT

Background@#Majority of recent deaths in the Philippines were attributed to noncommunicable diseases. While adequate consumption of fruits and vegetables can potentially decrease the burden of some of these noncommunicable diseases, health promotion and education interventions have also shown to increase the fruit and vegetable intake that will help prevent certain heart diseases and cancer.@*Objective@#This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a self-management intervention on psychosocial variables and fruit and vegetable intake (FVI) of public school teachers in Negros Oriental, Philippines.@*Methodology@#The study utilized the Solomon Four Group Design. The psychosocial variables were derived from Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory and Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior. FVI was measured using a food frequency questionnaire. An assessment of interaction between the intervention and pretest, group comparison tests, and nested ANOVA approach was performed.@*Results@#Teachers from 44 schools were included in the analysis; 112 were in the intervention group and 116 in the control group. Results indicate no significant interaction between treatment and pre-test group (F[1,224]=0.15, p=0.703) and no significant differences in the psychosocial variables scores and FVI of the intervention and control groups (p=>0.05). Significant findings in two of four psychosocial variables, particularly diet-related attitude (t=2.412, p=0.009) and knowledge regarding the recommended FVI (Fisher's exact test p=0.010), and mean FVI (t=1.898, p=0.031) were only found using data from the posttest-only intervention group who were able to attend the lecture-workshop and control group. Conclusion: The study found no evidence of pretest sensitization. There was insufficient evidence to conclude that there were differences in FVI and psychosocial variables of the intervention and control groups postintervention.