A Community-Based Intervention Program’s Effects on Dietary Intake Behaviors

To evaluate the effect of a community-based lifestyle behavioral intervention on intakes of fat, fruits, vegetables, fast foods, and beverages in low-income young mothers with overweight or obesity.

Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention (watching video lessons at home plus peer support group teleconferences) or a comparison group. General linear mixed model analyses were utilized to determine mean differences between the groups (212 intervention, 126 comparison) immediately following and 3 months (196 intervention, 115 comparison) after the intervention.

Immediately after the intervention, the intervention group had significantly lower mean scores in intakes of fat (effect size [d] = 0.24), fast foods (d = 0.33), and non–sugar-sweetened beverages (d = 0.27) than the comparison group. No significant group differences were observed for intakes of fruits, vegetables, or sugar-sweetened beverages. Three months after the intervention, no significant group differences were observed for intakes of fat, fruits, vegetables, fast foods, and both sugar- and non–sugar-sweetened beverages.

The intervention group improved dietary intakes of fat and fast foods but not fruits, vegetables, or beverages over the short term. Our intervention had no long-term effect on dietary intake behaviors.