Diet related outcome expectation, attitude and perceived self-efficacy among seniors residing in public housing developments in NYC: The well seasoned program

Studies have shown that the decisions individuals make about food intake are linked to several chronic diseases. When individuals believe they can successfully engage in behaviors to improve their diet, or believe there are benefits from doing so, they are more likely to engage in the behaviors. Well Seasoned (WS), is an eight-session health promotion program, targeting seniors residing in public housing developments. WS is designed to improve attitudes and behaviors among persons 60+years, to eat healthy, stretch their food budget, and engage in physical activities, to help them live healthy, independently and age in place.

Participants (n=184) completed pre/post intervention questionnaire, assessing measures such as behavior intention, outcome expectation, self-efficacy, and shopping and food consumption habits.

Participants mean age was 70.7years); female (77%); African Americans (34.9%), Hispanic (43.6%) and white (10.1%). At post, 75.1%) plan to cook healthy “…during the week” (p=.000); and among those said healthy foods taste good, pre vs. post intervention (M=1.73, SD= .73; M=1.9, SD .81; p=.000). Seniors who say they can find healthy recipes to cook (M=1.89, SD = .63) were also likely to say they can cook healthy every day (M=1.76, SD.69) (p=.002). WS had positive impact on perceived self-efficacy about using labels to make food consumption decisions (p =.007) and using unit prices to shop (p=.008).

The findings suggest that the model improve self-efficacy and behavior intentions to engage in healthy eating among seniors. Research is needed to examine its impact among sub-groups of seniors.