The effectiveness of online culinary nutrition courses on cooking skills: a systematic review

To review the impact of culinary nutrition interventions delivered online, in improving participants’ cooking and/or food skills. A systematic search strategy was developed to identify eligible studies across five electronic databases. Experimental studies with an online culinary nutrition intervention were included. Study characteristics and outcomes were extracted from eligible studies by one reviewer and checked by a second. A narrative synthesis of results from eligible studies were prepared including descriptive statistics. Reporting was guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement. A total of 29 (15 pre-post, 5 quasi-experimental, 6 randomized controlled trials) studies were included. Significant improvements were reported in cooking and/or food skill outcomes self-efficacy (5 of 11 studies), confidence (3 of 7), cooking and/or food skills (3 of 8), knowledge (2 of 7), cooking intentions or frequency (1 of 5), and attitudes and behaviors (3 of 6). Study findings were mixed for the impact of culinary nutrition interventions on cooking and/or food skills. The precise effect of these interventions delivered online is limited by the quality and duration of the intervention.