Identifying elements of empowerment and autonomy in food choices in Food and Nutrition Education groups: A qualitative research
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12957/demetra.2021.49454Keywords:
Food and Nutrition Education. Health Promotion. Healthy Diet. Primary Health Care. Qualitative Research.Abstract
Introduction: Public health policies have reinforced the importance of empowerment and autonomy of individuals, but these aspects are unfamiliar in the Nutrition field. Aim: To identify elements that contribute to the strengthening of empowerment and autonomy in food choices of Food and Nutrition Education Groups participants. Methods: A qualitative research from the perspective of social representations was carried out in the Primary Health Care in São Paulo city, Brazil. Two groups containing patients with chronic diseases were developed. These patients, between 47 and 78 years old, attended an average of 6 group meetings, within a three-month period. To explore the experiment patients, in order to understand how they attribute senses and meanings to their food choices, a semi-structured interview was conducted with 15 patients, post-intervention. To analyze the data, thematic content analysis was applied. Results: Five themes were identified: self-perception, information and knowledge, personal ability, attitude and active adaptation towards choices. The first four were identified as elements of empowerment, because they evidenced the expansion of individuals' capacity to think and act critically towards food choices. The last theme was formed by the confrontation of meanings from determinants, accountability and internal negotiation, which proved to be elements of autonomy, since they have configured transformations constructed by the participants themselves, post-intervention. Conclusions: The identified elements demonstrated to compose the evaluation of autonomy in individuals’ food choices, being able to constitute rating indicators of Food and Nutrition Education, as well as to evaluate and monitor care practices recommended in health promotion.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP RESPONSIBILITY
Title of the manuscript:
________________________________________________________
1. Statement of responsability
I certify that I have participated in the work above specified and take public responsibility for its content.
I certify that the manuscript represents an original work and that none of the material in the manuscript has been previously published, is included in another manuscript, or is currently under consideration for publication elsewhere, whether in printed form or in electronic media, except that described in the attachment.
In case of acceptance of this text by Demetra: Alimentação, Nutrição & Saude, I declare to be in accordance with the policy of public access and copyright adopted by Demetra, which provides as follows: (a) the authors retain the copyright and grant to the Journal the right of first publication, the work being simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows the sharing of the work with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal; (b) authors are authorized to enter additional contracts separately for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (eg, publishing in institutional repository or book chapter), with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal; and (c) authors are permitted and encouraged to post and distribute their work online (eg, in institutional repositories or on their personal page) at any point before or during the editorial process, as this may lead to productive changes, as well as increase the impact and citation of the published work.
2. Conflict of Interest Statement
I certify that there is no conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.
Date, signature and full address of all authors.
