Obesity is a growing problem in America, and Kentucky ranks second highest in the nation with an adult obesity rate of 40.3, and Kentucky’s children have the highest rate of obesity in the nation at 23.8%. In the summer of 2020, students in Dietetics and Human Nutrition (DHN 597) Obesity and the Food Insecurity Paradigm: From Cell to Society discovered there were many factors other than a person’s individual choices and behaviors which affect people’s health.  These factors such as limited access to healthy foods, poor access to healthcare, limited education opportunities, and unsafe housing are known as the social determinants of health. Some of these students began a journey to develop a new curriculum which focused on these factors.

Several extension specialists at the University of Kentucky partnered with 3 Family and Consumer Sciences’ agents across Kentucky and the Nutrition Education Program (NEP) Senior Assistant in Kenton County to research and develop a new curriculum series entitled Pathways to Wellness.  Pathways to Wellness is a four-part series which focuses on defining social determinants of health, and shows how family relationships, the built environment, and society and culture all impact a person’s health. The curriculum is designed to prompt action to promote a culture of health through increasing knowledge about the impacts of social determinants of health (SDOH), and increasing beliefs in individuals and the community to take action to change factors in the environment that promote health for all people.  The curriculum offers many hands-on activities throughout the series and shows participants how they can connect with others in the community to bring about Policy, System, and Environment changes.

The NEP Senior Assistant helped lead the training to teach Family and Consumer Sciences agents about the new curriculum.  She also helped lead a condensed training of the program at the Kentucky Extension Homemaker’s Association meeting this spring.  The Pathways to Wellness team, including the NEP Senior Assistant, will present the new curriculum at the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences Agents’ meeting this fall.  Although the NEP Assistant is not allowed to teach the curriculum herself, she works every day with people who are experiencing the social determinants of health such as inadequate housing, limited resources to access healthy and affordable food, and limited education.  As a result of her research and efforts to develop this curriculum, she is able to better connect her clientele to agencies who can help with their needs while she herself teaches them how to eat healthier on a limited budget, how to plan, shop for, and prepare meals safely, and how to make healthier choices one step at a time.

The Extension specialists, extension agents, and the NEP Senior Assistant who developed this program are already talking about expanding the program to provide more opportunities for the people of Kentucky to achieve better health outcomes for themselves and their communities.