• Ken Resnicow, Marci Kramish Campbell, Carol Carr, Frances McCarty, Terry Wang, Santhi Periasamy, Simone Rahotep, Colleen Doyle, Alexis Williams, and Gloria Stables.
• School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. kresnic@umich.edu
• Am J Prev Med. 2004 Aug 1; 27 (2): 9710597-105.

ObjectivesBody and Soul was a collaborative effort among two research universities, a national voluntary agency (American Cancer Society), and the National Institutes of Health to disseminate and evaluate under real-world conditions the impact of previously developed dietary interventions for African Americans.MethodsBody and Soul was constructed from two successful research-based interventions conducted in African-American churches. Components deemed essential from the prior interventions were combined, and then tested in a cluster randomized-effectiveness trial. The primary outcome was fruit and vegetable intake measured with two types of food frequency questionnaires at baseline and 6-month follow-up.ResultsAt the 6-month follow-up, intervention participants showed significantly greater fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake relative to controls. Post-test differences were 0.7 and 1.4 servings for the 2-item and 17-item F&V frequency measures, respectively. Statistically significant positive changes in fat intake, motivation to eat F&V, social support, and efficacy to eat F&V were also observed.ConclusionsThe results suggest that research-based interventions, delivered collaboratively by community volunteers and a health-related voluntary agency, can be effectively implemented under real-world conditions.

19 keywords...

hide…