Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116895

Carolyn Fernandez, MHA¹, Kelly Sparks, MPA¹, Lan Graves, MPH¹, Clayton Williams, MPH¹, Jerry Wall, Ph D, SPHR², and Thomas A. Farley, MD, MPH³. (1) Step Together New Orleans, Louisiana Public Health Institute, 1600 Canal Street, Suite 1028, New Orleans, LA 70112, 504-301-9800, cfernandez@lphi.org, (2) University of Louisiana at Monroe, Center for Business & Economic Research, Monroe, LA 71209-0101, (3) Community Health Sciences, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, 1440 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70112

Because obesity is a population-wide problem, messages to encourage physical activity and healthy eating need to be delivered to large numbers of people. As part of the Step Together New Orleans project to reduce obesity in New Orleans, we are conducting a mass media-based campaign to promote walking and consumption of fruits and vegetables. The “Treat You Right” campaign began February 9, 2005 and includes television, radio, and transit ads with very high reach and frequency. The primary target audience is African-American women age 18-49 in the city of New Orleans. Messages were developed with a local advertising agency based on focus groups with women in this target group. The campaign will be evaluated primarily with random-digit-dial telephone surveys of 3,000 New Orleans residents in 2004 and 1,500 residents in 2005, in which questions asked include modules from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System as well as locally-added questions about fruit and vegetable consumption, recreational and utilitarian walking, and recall of campaign slogans. In 2004, only 12% of respondents reported eating three or more servings of vegetables per day and 57% reported walking more 10 minutes at a time for more than one day per week. We will show the ads, describe the process for developing them, and present data on changes in attitudes and behaviors over the first six months of the campaign.

Learning Objectives: By the end of this session, participants will

• Understand the components of the community-wide mass media campaign to promote healthy eating and physical activity in New Orleans
• Learn how the intiative is being evaluated and view early results
• Understand how to multi-sector partnership (public, not for profit, academic, corporate) was formed to construct and finance a community-wide media campaign to improve health

Related Web page: www.steptogethernola.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation