2018 National EFNEP Coordinators' Conference

Physical activity (PA) has been incorporated in EFNEP since 2005 and has become one of the EFNEP core areas. However, challenges may remain in terms of participants' understanding of the PA terminology nutrition educators use in communicating PA recommendations. The purpose of this investigation, which was part of a larger project undertaken by the NC2169 EFNEP Related Research, Program Evaluation and Outreach, was to determine EFNEP participants' understanding of various physical activity terms. Fifty-eight semi-structured, cognitive interviews were conducted with EFNEP participants from New Jersey, Tennessee, and Washington to assess how participants describe moderate to vigorous level aerobic and muscle strengthening activities. Content analysis was employed to catalog and categorize responses. Results indicated that many EFNEP participants were not familiar with the terms commonly used by professionals to describe physical activities. Nutrition educators must attend to the terminology they use when they teach communicating physical activity concepts to EFNEP participants.