Increased self-efficacy for vegetable preparation following an online, skill-based intervention and in-class tasting experience as a part of a general education college nutrition course

PURPOSE: Assess the effectiveness of the integration of vegetable demonstration videos and tasting experiences into a college nutrition course to influence students’ readiness to change vegetable intake, self-efficacy for vegetable preparation, and usual vegetable intake.

DESIGN: Quasiexperimental, preintervention-postintervention comparisons.

SETTING: College nutrition course.

SUBJECTS: Of the 376 students enrolled in the course, 186 completed the online assessments (145 female, 41 male; mean age, 20 years).

INTERVENTION: Participants viewed online vegetable preparation videos and participated in vegetable tasting experiences that featured four target vegetables, one vegetable each month for 4 months.

MEASURES: Preintervention and postintervention online surveys determined usual vegetable intake, readiness to change vegetable consumption, and self-efficacy of vegetable preparation.

ANALYSIS: Chi-square distribution and paired sample t-tests were used to examine differences preintervention and postintervention.

RESULTS: Stage of readiness to change vegetable intake shifted from contemplation toward preparation (p < .001). Self-efficacy of vegetable preparation increased and postintervention self-efficacy was associated with total and target vegetable consumption (p  =  .001 and p  =  .005, respectively). The average intake of asparagus, one of four target vegetables, increased (p  =  .016); similar changes were not observed for target or total vegetable consumption.

CONCLUSION: Online vegetable demonstration videos may be an effective and cost-efficient intervention for increasing self-efficacy of vegetable preparation and readiness to increase vegetable consumption among college students. More research is needed to determine long-term effects on vegetable consumption.