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The Healthy Rewards study tested the effectiveness of goal setting to encourage behavior change in Latino and African American adults in three northern California counties. Four groups of adults were alternately assigned to receive either 1) basic health promotion and nutrition education without goal setting (control) or 2) the same education with personal goal setting. Participants (n = 31) attended four 2-hour weekly sessions over 1 month. While the community-based education was effective in promoting participant behavior change overall, the goal-setting groups reported even greater change than groups who did not engage in goal setting. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

Objective: To examine the effectiveness of learner-centered education in conveying the message to change participants' fruit and vegetable consumption. Design: Focus groups were conducted with sites participating in the Finding the Teacher Within (FTW) program and comparison sites 4-6 months after participants attended the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) fruit and vegetable class. Setting: Six California WIC agencies. Participants: Sixty predominantly Latina mothers with young children, 30 from 3 participating intervention agencies and 30 from 3 comparison agencies, participated in focus groups. Each agency independently recruited mothers for participation. Apart from selecting only mothers, no other exclusion criteria were applied. Intervention: An FTW learner-centered fruit and vegetable class. Analysis: An analytic team independently reviewed transcripts and coded themes. The long-table analytic approach was used to categorize results. Results from intervention and comparison groups were compared and ranked to create a textual summary. Results: The most significant difference between the intervention and comparison groups' reports was that intervention participants identified more value, importance, and relevance of the fruit and vegetable information and adopting new fruit and vegetable practices after attending the class. Conclusions and Implications: California WIC demonstrated that messages delivered through this process can be retained and integrated into family life practices.

A study examined low-income Latinos' attitudes concerning diabetes. Focus groups and surveys of 160 California Latinos, primarily of Mexican descent, found that many at risk of developing diabetes were unaware of risk factors, had never been screened, and did not know where to get advice. Most believed that stress or strong emotion caused the illness. Implications for nutrition education are discussed. (TD)

OBJETIVO: Estudiar la percepción y la experiencia sobre inseguridad alimentaria entre latinoamericanos de California, así como su interpretación de los insumos incluidos en la Escala de Seguridad Alimentaria. MATERIAL Y MÉTODOS: Entre noviembre y diciembre de 2000, en los condados californianos de Solano y San Joaquín, se efectuaron cuatro grupos focales, con 30 adultos de origen latinoamericano residentes allí. Los comentarios de los participantes fueron codificados por dos investigadores para determinar los temas principales, y fueron confrontados para verificar su convergencia. RESULTADOS: Las preguntas fueron bien comprendidas, no percibiéndose como ofensivas. El marco conceptual se confirmó como "proceso manejado" con diferentes niveles de severidad. Las causas de inseguridad alimentaria identificadas fueron: desempleo, alto costo de algunos alimentos y falta de información nutricional. La necesidad de educación nutricional fue una constante. CONCLUSIONES: Para interpretar datos nacionales de inseguridad alimentaria en latinoamericanos es esencial considerar su percepción particular de ese fenómeno.