Virtual Healthy Habits: Innovative Nutrition Education Program with Long-Term Outcomes

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Only available as part of a package

M2: Learning Lab: Virtual Healthy Habits: Innovative Nutrition Education Program with Long-Term Outcomes

Virtually Healthy Habits (VHH) is an award-winning, innovative, and interactive group-based virtual program designed for older adults to learn about healthy nutrition that includes home-delivered meal kits with cooking demonstrations. Participants choose the meals they wish to prepare from a menu of options, receive fresh ingredients delivered to their door and prepare the meals from a recipe book and/or video cooking demonstration. Participants meet virtually for weekly nutrition education and social sessions for five weeks. Outcomes from this group-based design aims to improve older adults’ dietary knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors as well as their social connectedness. This highly interactive session highlight aspects of the VHH website, shows excerpts from cooking demonstration videos used in the program, and share hard copies of VHH materials such as the facilitator manual and participant workbook. Presenters will share information about the effectiveness of VHH and share testimonials from older adult participants.

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

Describe Virtual Healthy Habits and its key programmatic components
Identify the outcomes from baseline to 6-month follow-up from Virtual Health Habits surveys
Discover avenues to implement Virtual Healthy Habits in your community

Sarah Harrell, MAFP (Moderator)

Senior Associate, Operations and Project Management

National Council on Aging

Emir Kandzetovic MPH

Program Manager

The Oasis Institute

Emir Kandzetovic is a program manager at the Oasis Institute. Mr. Kandzetovic works on the evidence-based health team managing and implementing evidence-based programs in chronic disease self-management, social isolation, and nutrition. Currently, Mr. Kandzetovic is leading a research team to design, implement, evaluate, and disseminate the Virtual Healthy Habits program with support and funding from the Administration for Community Living. Emir is a graduate from St. Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice where he obtained his Masters in Public Health. Mr. Kandzetovic plans to pursue a PhD in Public Health Studies.

Matthew Smith PhD, MPH, CHES

Associate Professor

Texas A&M University

Dr. Matthew Lee Smith is an associate professor in the Texas A&M School of Public Health and primary faculty member of in the Texas A&M Health Center for Population Health and Aging. As an evaluator and interventionist, his research addresses health risk across the life-course and the uptake of evidence-based solutions for older adults. Dr. Smith has devoted his career to creating synergistic partnerships and initiatives to encourage positive lifestyles and reduce preventable morbidity and mortality. His translational work bridges research and practice issues across the healthcare sector, aging services network, and public health system.