The overall goal of the Nutrition Intervention Core is to provide state-of-the-art resources and techniques todevelop and evaluate nutritional interventions aimed at promoting health and preventing disease in populationsat risk. The Core fills a critical gap in the existing resources available to CNRU faculty - the translation ofscience-based research on nutrition communication, health behavior, and communication theory, andintervention design and evaluation, into implementation and evaluation techniques that faculty members canuse to develop more effective dietary interventions.The conduct of dietary intervention research in community and public health settings requires access to avariety of skills, instruments, and resources that are difficult to obtain from other sources in the University.Without access to these skills and resources, interventions may fail to achieve their objectives. Yet, developingand maintaining these resources independently are very difficult and costly for individual faculty. The majorpurpose of the Nutrition Intervention Core is to provide services to faculty that effectively and efficientlysupport the design and evaluation of state-of-the-art, theory-based dietary intervention research.The Nutrition Intervention Core facility is highly utilized and provides value-added functions to the CNRUbecause many of the faculty members require similar expertise and resources to design, develop, and trackthe effectiveness of their intervention studies. The Core also provides an invaluable grant development andwriting resource for investigators developing NIH-funded proposals that require theory-based design andmeasures, innovative intervention components, or both. Through the Nutrition Intervention Core, CNRUinvestigators have access to intervention development and tracking tools, and receive help and consultationon the application of these tools specific to each project. In particular, the Nutrition Intervention Core hasassisted investigators with theory selection and framework creation, web development, intervention design andmaterials development, behavioral research methods, and process evaluation. Consultation has also beenprovided to investigators to enable them to choose measures and approaches best suited to their nutritionresearch questions and goals. Finding the information and resources, maintaining the computers andsoftware, and finding and keeping experienced staff can be expensive if each project does this on its own. Inaddition to the expertise and experience that the staff offers, the Core also facilitated a number of skillenhancing workshops and seminars.
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