Testing Efficacy of Teaching Food Safety and Identifying Variables that Affect Learning in a Low-Literacy Population

• Published in: Journal of cancer education Vol. 30; no. 1; pp. 100 - 107
• Main Authors: Mosby, Terezie Tolar, Romero, Angélica Lissette Hernández, Linares, Ana Lucía Molina, Challinor, Julia M., Day, Sara W., Caniza, Miguela
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01-03-2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cancer; Cancer Research; Caregivers; Caregivers - education; Caregivers - statistics & numerical data; Child; Childrens health; Developed Nations; Evidence Based Practice; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Food Safety; Food Standards; Health Education; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Hospitals; Humans; Instructional Materials; Interviews; Learning; Leukemia; Literacy; Low income groups; Male; Medical Oncology; Neoplasms - prevention & control; Nursing Education; Nutrition; Nutritional Sciences - education; Oncology; Patients; Pharmacology/Toxicology; Questionnaires; Reading Ability; Retention (Psychology); Safety Education; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teaching Methods; El Salvador; Guatemala; Pediatric oncology; Food safety; Low income; Nutrition; Education; Literacy
• ISSN: 0885-8195; 1543-0154
• DOI: 10.1007/s13187-014-0666-2

Nurses at a meeting of the Asociación de Hemato Oncología Pediátrica de Centroamérica y El Caribe recognized food safety as one of the main issues affecting patient care. The objective was to increase awareness of food safety issues among caregivers for pediatric cancer patients in Guatemala and El Salvador. A low-literacy booklet about food safety, “Alimentación del niño con cáncer (Feeding the child with cancer),” was developed for caregivers. Tests were developed to assess information acquisition and retention. An educator’s guide was developed for consistency of education along with a demographics questionnaire. The efficacy of the booklet was tested with 162 caregivers of patients with newly diagnosed leukemia. Information retention was tested 1 and 3 months after the initial education. The booklet was found to be efficient for food safety education. There was no significant difference between post-educational knowledge in either country at 1 month or in Guatemala at 3 months. Pre-educational knowledge was not associated with any demographic variable except for self-reported ability to read in El Salvador. There was no significant association between learning ability and demographic variables in either country. Caregivers from El Salvador had a better ability to learn than caregivers from Guatemala. Education using the booklet greatly improved food safety knowledge, which remained high 1 and 3 months later. Education with the booklet was efficacious for teaching a low-literacy population about food safety. However, it is unknown which part of the education contributed to the significant improvement in knowledge.