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You had better eat your veggies.
University of Georgia researchers may be calling to check up on you.
A new $147,200 two-year federal grant from the National Institutes of Health
will help researchers from UGA’s College of Public Health understand
how communication and lifestyles affect our consumption of fruits and vegetables.
Researchers will be developing long-term communication campaigns touting healthy
dietary modifications at a time when cancer claims more than half a million
lives each year. Lindsay J. Della, principal investigator and a doctoral candidate
in Health Promotion and Behavior at UGA, said, “For nearly a decade and
a half, the National Cancer Institute’s nationally recognized communication
program has informed Americans that eating five or more servings of fruit and
vegetables can yield significant health benefits.
“But, according to the American Journal of Public Health, fruit and vegetable
consumption has remained relatively stable from 1994 to the beginning of the
21st century,” Della said. “New approaches need to be developed
to provide more cost-effective health promotion methods that foster long-term
dietary changes.”
Della’s study will attempt to identify whether a cross section of adults
(males and females ages 18 to 74) living diverse lifestyles hold different
attitudes toward their intake of fruit and vegetables. The knowledge gained
through this study, in part, will help researchers understand how consumer
marketing tools can be leveraged to augment the National Cancer Institute’s
current “5-A-Day” campaign.
Della’s project co-investigators are David M. DeJoy, Ph.D., Director
of the Workplace Health Group and Professor of Health Promotion and Behavior
who will contribute scientific advice in health behavior research, and Charles
E. Lance, Ph. D., Professor of Psychology, Applied Psychology Program, who
will contribute expert advice during the analysis portion of the project.
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A
new $147,200 two-year federal grant from the National Institutes of Health
will help researchers from UGA’s College of Public Health understand
how communication and lifestyles affect our consumption of fruits and vegetables.
