The Cooperative Extension System has focused on nutrition education for low-income
families for approximately 29 years via the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education
Program (EFNEP). In response to the need for a comprehensive economic evaluation
of EFNEP, Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) was awarded a grant from the
Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Services, United States Department
of Agriculture (CSREES, USDA) to conduct a cost benefit analysis (CBA) of nutrition
education programs, with emphasis on EFNEP. Virginia EFNEP served as the pilot program
to test the evaluation procedure.
This study is a part of the CBA of Virginia EFNEP. The purpose is to calculate the
indirect tangible benefits derived from participation in EFNEP. The indirect tangible
benefits are classified as 1) delaying productivity loss due to mortality and 2)
avoiding productivity loss due to morbidity. This study also uses sensitivity analysis
to evaluate the effects of two critical assumptions pertaining to retention of dietary
behaviors and to incidence rate of diseases in the low-income population. Finally, the
discount rate is analyzed via sensitivity calculations.
There were two major conclusions drawn from this study. First, the indirect benefits
accounted for more than $1 million of the total benefit generate by EFNEP. Second, the
sensitivity analyses support the positive outcome (i. e., positive return on every dollar
invested) derived from the CBA of Virginia EFNEP.
