Create Our Own Kai: A Randomised Control Trial of a Cooking Intervention with Group Interview Insights into Adolescent Cooking Behaviours.

Cooking is frequently associated with a healthier diet, however few youth cooking intervention studies have used control groups or follow-ups. Additionally, although cooking is associated with better mental well-being among adolescents, this has not been examined experimentally. This randomised controlled trial investigated whether a five-day intensive holiday cooking program, followed by six weeks of weekly meal kits with Facebook support groups, affected the cooking-related outcomes, diet quality and mental well-being among adolescents, with a 12-month follow-up. Adolescents aged 12-15 years (intervention: n = 91, 60% female; control: n = 27, 78% female) completed baseline, post-intervention and 12-month follow-up anthropometric measures, and questionnaire measures of mental well-being, diet quality and cooking attitudes, self-efficacy and behaviours. The intervention group's post-intervention outcomes improved significantly more for mental well-being, diet quality, helping make dinner, cooking self-efficacy and positive cooking attitude, however body mass index (BMI) z-scores also increased. Differences were maintained at 12 months for self-efficacy only. Group interviews showed that participants' cooking behaviours were strongly influenced by family factors. Adolescent cooking interventions may have many short-term benefits, however cooking self-efficacy appears most responsive and stable over time. Effects on BMI need further investigation. Family factors influence whether and what adolescents cook post-intervention.

Pilot Testing of an Intensive Cooking Course for New Zealand Adolescents: The Create-Our-Own Kai Study.

The role of cooking on health and wellbeing is a recent area of scientific interest. In order to investigate this role, a cooking program that is suitable for each target population is needed e.g., a program designed for American or Australian children might not be appropriate for teenagers in New Zealand. As there was no similar previously evaluated program already available, the study’s purpose was to test an intensive cooking intervention on cooking confidence and knowledge amongst a group of adolescents from Dunedin, New Zealand, and to assess its acceptability to participants. This five-day program comprised interactive cooking sessions and informal nutrition education and ran from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday to Friday during school holidays. Participants completed questionnaires on cooking skills and confidence at baseline and the end of intervention and took part in a group interview, which aimed to investigate the acceptability and outcome of the program. Twenty-one participants aged between 12 and 16 years old completed the program. At the end of the program, significant increases were seen in both skills and confidence levels, and feedback from the group interview indicated that the participants enjoyed the program and that it provided additional results other than those that were cooking related.