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Session: Innovative Nutrition Education Interventions Across Populations (Oral 21)

(OR21-04-24) Efficacy of a Pilot Intervention of Culturally Tailored Healthy Eating Messages for Latino Adults in Massachusetts, USA

Monday, July 1, 2024
10:36 AM – 10:48 AM CT
Location:  W184

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Cristina Gago, PhD, MPH

    Assistant Professor
    BU School of Public Health
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

    Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

    • Co-Author(s)

  • AC

    Areli Caballero-González

    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, United States

  • AM

    Ana Maafs-Rodríguez

    Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, United States

  • AZ

    Amelia Zhang Gross

    Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, United States

  • HO

    H. June O’Neill

    Harvard Medical School, Department of Population Medicine and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, United States

  • JM

    Josiemer Mattei, PhD

    Associate Professor
    Harvard University
    Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Objectives: US Latinos report low diet quality. This study reports on the efficacy of a pilot intervention involving daily healthy eating messages culturally tailored for specific Latino ethnic heritages (vs. overall Latinos) for improving diet quality.

Methods: Participants (25-65y; Massachusetts, US) received daily text messages on healthy eating for two months, which were repeated the following two months. Participants were randomized to a control group (n=38) that received surface-level messages obtained from the Spanish USDA MyPlate (i.e., for overall Latinos), or to an intervention group (n=37) that received deep-structure messages (i.e., tailored to Caribbean or non-Caribbean Latino heritage from formative research). Data were collected via interviews at baseline (m0), two months (m2), and four months (m4). Primary outcomes included changes in diet quality score, food group intake, and dietary behaviors; secondary outcomes included changes in home food inventory, and program satisfaction and engagement (i.e., number of texts read). Among complete cases (n=61), Fisher’s exact tests compared within-group differences over time and linear and logistic models estimated relative between-group differences.

Results: At m4 (vs. m0), more control participants reported home beverage inventory (m0: 86.7% vs. m4: 100.0%) and fewer daily bread intake (m0: 83.9% vs. m4: 61.3%); more intervention participants reported recognizing a heritage tailored MyPlate (m0: 71.0% vs. m4: 96.8%). No significant relative changes between the intervention vs. control group were observed over time (b=0.09; 95%CI= -1.62, 1.80). Message satisfaction and engagement were high for both the intervention and control groups (80.7% vs. 83.3%, 83.3% vs. 83.9%, respectively).

Conclusions: While deep-tailored (vs. surface-level) healthy eating messages for US Latinos did not significantly improve diet quality, high satisfaction and engagement with the messages suggest promise after stronger tailoring and saturation.

Funding Sources: NIH K01HL120951