The Effect of a Multicomponent Professional Development Training on the Beliefs and Behaviors of Community Health Educators Concerning Food Irradiation

Abstract

Beliefs have a significant effect on the health behaviors of individuals and educators; however, they can be difficult to change. The purpose of this study was to determine if exposing community health educators, specifically family and consumer sciences county extension educators, to a multicomponent professional development training on food irradiation could change their beliefs and behaviors. This study compared the food irradiation beliefs and educational programming of educators who participated in a professional development training with those who did not. Results indicated that the training significantly improved the food irradiation beliefs of participants. In addition, the number of participants who provided food irradiation education significantly improved compared with educators who had not attended the training. These results suggest that this type of professional development training format can significantly affect beliefs and could increase the amount of food irradiation information available to consumers through community health educators.

Factors Predicting Likelihood of Eating Irradiated Meat

“…Our results, based on PMT, explain a new outcome, consumer acceptance of meat irradiation, and found that this theory could indeed be applied to predict consumer willingness to buy irradiated meat. Our results also confirmed findings of the consumer psychology literature that emphasize the importance of the perceived safety, risks, and benefits of food processing technologies in understanding consumer acceptance of these technologies (Brown et al., ; Cope et al., ; Grunert, ; Thompson & Knight, ). Moreover, these results provide a number of the potential targets for future interventions aimed at improving acceptance of meat irradiation.…”

“…There are a number of difficulties with such proposals, not the least of which is the possibility that the proposed term may be perceived as deceptive. Instead, education about the irradiation process and the safety of food irradiation may help positively influence the public's attitude as evidenced by previous studies (Fox, 2002;Fox et al, 2002;Nayga Jr, Woodward, & Aiew, 2006;Thompson & Knight, 2006;Thompson, Ribera, Wingenbach, & Vestal, 2007). Further, increasing the public's awareness of the risks associated with foodborne illness may lead to greater acceptance of measures to combat foodborne contamination.…”

Implementation and public acceptability: lessons from food irradiation and how they might apply to pathogen reduction in blood products

“…Calls were made for a co‐ordinated, balanced public education and information programme , to raise public awareness of the benefits, costs and risks of FI . Research has demonstrated that short video presentations, informational brochures , newspapers and government flyers were effective ways to transfer information about FI to the public; endorsement of FI by health professionals was also shown to increase acceptability .…”

The Relationship between Attitudes, Knowledge, and Demographic Variables of High School Teachers Regarding Food Irradiation

“…Recent research with community‐based nutrition and health educators, specifically family and consumer sciences county extension educators, indicates their perceived understanding about food irradiation and its safety influenced the amount of education they provided to clients on this topic (Thompson and Knight 2006a, 2006b). In addition, the amount of teaching experience of these educators influenced their beliefs toward the safety of food irradiation (Thompson and Knight 2006a).…”