Nutrition and Health Improvements After Participation in an Urban Home Garden Program

Kartika Palar; Emiliano Lemus Hufstedler; Karen Hernandez; Annie Chang; Laura Ferguson; Raul Lozano; Sheri D Weiser

doi:10.1016/j.jneb.2019.06.028

Nutrition and Health Improvements After Participation in an Urban Home Garden Program

J Nutr Educ Behav. 2019 Oct;51(9):1037-1046. doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2019.06.028.

Authors

Kartika Palar¹, Emiliano Lemus Hufstedler², Karen Hernandez³, Annie Chang⁴, Laura Ferguson⁵, Raul Lozano⁶, Sheri D Weiser⁷

Affiliations

¹ Division of HIV, Infectious Disease, and Global Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA. Electronic address: kartika.palar@ucsf.edu.
² Division of HIV, Infectious Disease, and Global Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; University of California, Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.
³ Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
⁴ University of California, Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA.
⁵ Global Health Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
⁶ Valley Verde, San José, CA.
⁷ Division of HIV, Infectious Disease, and Global Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; Institute for Global Health, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.

Abstract

Objective: To elucidate the perceived health benefits of an urban home gardening and nutritional education program in a population at high cardiometabolic risk.

Design: Qualitative data collected via in-depth, semistructured interviews in Spanish or English.

Setting: Community-based program offering supported urban home gardening together with nutrition education in Santa Clara County, CA.

Participants: A total of 32 purposively sampled low-income participants in an urban home gardening program. Participants were primarily female (n = 24) and Latino/a (n = 22).

Phenomenon of interest: Perceptions of the nutrition and health benefits of education-enhanced urban home gardening.

Analysis: Bilingual researchers coded transcripts using a hybrid inductive and deductive approach. Two coders double coded at intervals, independently reviewed coding reports, organized content into key themes, and selected exemplary quotations.

Results: The most salient perceived impacts were greater food access, increased consumption of fresh produce, a shift toward home cooking, and decreased fast food consumption. Participants attributed these changes to greater affordability, freshness, flavor, and convenience of their garden produce; increased health motivation owing to pride in their gardens; and improved nutritional knowledge. Participants also reported improved physical activity, mental health, and stress management; some reported improved weight and adherence to diabetes-healthy diets.

Conclusions and implications: Education-enhanced urban home gardening may facilitate multidimensional nutrition and health improvements in marginalized populations at high cardiometabolic risk.

Keywords: Latino; health; nutrition; qualitative; urban garden.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Aged
Diet, Healthy
Female
Gardening*
Health Behavior*
Health Promotion / methods*
Hispanic or Latino
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Nutritional Status
Qualitative Research
Urban Population*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grant support