CCNH funds new projects in nutrition education for children, teens, and families
The Centre for Child Nutrition & Health (CCNH) has awarded two CCNH Nutrition Medical Education Grants of $10,000 each. These grants support innovative and collaborative education projects that focus on nutrition education of students, health care professionals, patients, and/or children and families. We are pleased to announce the following grant recipients:
1. Project Title: Online Education for Gluten-Free Diet Teaching: Development and Usability Testing of an E-Learning Module for Children with Concurrent Celiac Disease and Type 1 Diabetes.
Principal Investigator: Catharine Walsh
Co-Investigators: Margaret Marcon, Robert Bandsma, Veronik Connan, Farid Mahmud, Esther Assor, Laura Vresk
Project Summary: Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disease in which the lining of the small intestine is damaged when a substance called gluten is eaten, making it hard for the body to absorb nutrients. Up to 16% of children with Type 1 Diabetes also develop Celiac Disease. This life-long condition is treated by removing gluten from the diet for life. When children are diagnosed with Celiac Disease they receive one-on-one education regarding the Gluten-Free Diet from dietitians; however, this type of education uses a lot of resources. Online education may be another way to educate children and their families about the Gluten-Free Diet. This research is being undertaken to see if an interactive online learning module can be used to help educate children and their families on the Gluten Free Diet as treatment for Celiac Disease. If successful, the use of online education has the potential to improve patient education as it allows children and their families to access the information from home when needed and use the online module to educate other people, such as teachers and babysitters, who are involved with meal preparation and supervision. The use of online nutrition education would also help to improve the cost-effectiveness of Celiac Disease education.
2. Project Title: Development and evaluation of interactive educational nutrition videos for children and adolescents
Co-Investigator: Alissa Steinberg, Kelsey Gallagher, Elizabeth Dettmer, Preeti Grewal, Andrea Leyser, Hayyah Clairman
Collaborators: Tory Zimmerman, Allison Lougheed
Project Summary: There is a paucity of nutrition education that is easily accessible to children, adolescents and their families in a readily consumable format. We hope to develop pediatric-focused, digital solutions that combine the best clinical practices in pediatric dietetics with the most cutting edge technologies to support children and adolescents in achieving their health goals. By conducting focus groups with children, adolescents, parents/caregivers and healthcare providers; we will be able to create education videos based on high priority and relevant nutrition topics. With a strong dissemination platform, we strive to impact a large target audience, from hospital, clinics, community centres, schools, to popular online forums. Furthermore, through viewer feedback questionnaires and knowledge assessment tools, we will evaluate the effectives of these interactive education videos. Overall, we strongly believe that in order to enrich children’s’ lives from an early age, we need to develop nutrition related educational tools that are in keeping with technological advances, paired with effective behaviour change strategies.
