Eleven people with chronic schizophrenia were the subjects of an 8-week study which asked three research questions. How did these individuals with a chronic mental illness function as deinstitutionalised persons? Did participation in a 6-week nutritional education programme affect cognitive performance and behaviour? And did the nutritional education package require further refinement? This experiment produced qualitative data which were analysed using descriptive statistics and evaluation of questionnaires. The pre-test and post-test scores of the subjects suggested that improved nutritional knowledge did not relate to attitudes or to the shopping and eating behaviour of people with chronic schizophrenia living in the community. A future need to address this lack of generalisation of skills was identified.
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