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Browsing by Author "Cox, Ruby H."

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    Applying cost benefit analysis to nutrition education programs : focus on the Virginia Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program : final report
    Lambur, Michael T.; Rajgopal, Radhika; Lewis, Edwin C.; Cox, Ruby H.; Ellerbrock, Michael J. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 1999)
    In attempts to make public programs more cost effective, it is critical to develop and apply new techniques to evaluate Extension programs. Indeed, one of the major challenges facing Extension evaluators is the need to provide concise, meaningful evaluation information to decision-makers. Nutrition education has been a base program of the Cooperative Extension System since its inception. While knowledge gain, and to a more limited extent the behavior changes of participants have been measured, good measures of the cost savings that accrue as a result of participation in these education programs are not available. Procedures that quantitatively compare a program's costs to its benefits are inherently popular and useful. Cost benefit and effectiveness analysis represent economic analysis procedures that can be useful in addressing this need.
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    Applying Cost Benefit Analysis to Nutrition Education Programs: Focus on the Virginia Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program
    Lambur, Michael T.; Rajgopal, Radhika; Lewis, Edwin C.; Cox, Ruby H.; Ellerbrock, Michael J. (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2009-05-01)
    This study presents the procedures and results of a cost-benefit analysis of Virginia EFNEP to measure the economic efficiency of the program for the federal sponsors.
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    An examination of the relationship between characteristics of Expanded Food and Nutrition Program paraprofessionals and their effectiveness as change agents
    Welschenbach, Marilyn A. (Virginia Tech, 1993)
    The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is a federal program designed to improve the nutritional status of the population and provide employment for paraprofessional aides from the indigenous target population and an example of a change agency. Diffusion and change literature offer many models and possible personality characteristics that may be associated with effective change agents. The purpose of the study was to examine characteristics of paraprofessionals employed in the Adult phase of Virginia EFNEP and their relationship to paraprofessional effectiveness and how well they fit the diffusion model. Effectiveness for the paraprofessional was measured as homemaker success (change in nutrient intake and food behavior) and as paraprofessional performance (workload and home visit evaluation). Personality, training, and demographic characteristics of the 40 paraprofessionals were obtained through a mailed Paraprofessional Questionnaire and the Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF) Test. Demographics, food behavior and knowledge, and nutrient intake for a sample of three homemakers per paraprofessional (N=116) were obtained from EFNEP Family Records. Homophily, the measure of correspondence, was calculated by comparing each paraprofessional with their sample of three homemakers. Three personality factors (concrete thinking, impulsivity, and self-discipline) along with homophily were correlated with change in food behavior, none with change in nutrient intake, and two (concrete thinking and low tension) along with perfect match homophily were correlated with workload. There were no apparent difference in training. When all factors were analyzed by stepwise multiple regression, homophily along with three of the second-order personality factors were related to change in food behavior. One second order factor, low anxiety along with perfect match, was related to workload. Implications for practice include: (a) EFNEP paraprofessionals, in part, appear to be fitting the model of change agent effectiveness, in that homophily is influencing the homemakers and (b) low anxiety and low tension appear to be related to effectiveness and could be used in employee selection and future training. Recommendations for future study include: (a) further study into quantification of homophily and (b) investigation of relationship of characteristics to supervisor view of effectiveness.