Graduate Research Student Oklahoma State University Mannford, Oklahoma, United States
Disclosure(s):
Saydee B. Carl, MS, RD/LD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
Objectives: From 1999-2000 through 2017-2018, obesity prevalence in the U.S. increased from 30.5% to 42.2%. During the same time frame, the prevalence of severe obesity (BMI≥40) increased from 4.7% to 9.2%. These rates suggest the need for different approaches in obesity prevention. The Social Ecological Framework supports expanding the role of Extension educators to include Policy, Systems, and Environmental (PSE) strategies to support direct education. Cooperative Extension educators are in a unique position to carry out PSE strategies within communities where they have a community presence and trust from the community members. We hypothesize that Extension educators may need additional knowledge, skills, and resources to implement PSE strategies in their communities that contribute to healthy behaviors. The purpose of this study was to perform a Learning Needs Analysis on the topic of PSE strategies among Cooperative Extension educators to inform the development of a training program over PSE strategies.
Methods: In this study, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension educators (n=24) in the areas of Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) and 4-H were recruited via email to complete an online survey. Descriptive statistics were used to calculate frequencies and mean scores for Likert scaled questions (1-strongly disagree, 5-strongly agree) assessing PSE knowledge, skills, and resources.
Results: Preliminary findings showed that 88% of Extension educators have not participated in PSE training. Using a Likert scale of 1-5, a 2.94 mean was found when assessing Extension educators' overall familiarity of PSE strategies. Likewise, a 2.74 mean was found when assessing if they had plans or objectives to use PSE strategies.
Conclusions: Preliminary findings support the hypothesis that Extension educators have limited familiarity of PSE strategies which supports limited plan to use the strategies. As such, there is a need for further training on PSE strategies among Extension educators to support behavior changes related to obesity prevention. Without an understanding of PSE strategies, implementation of these strategies can be very difficult. Therefore, supporting a need for a new training.
Funding Sources: There are no funding sources to report.
