GoodNEWS Trial (Genes, Nutrition, Exercise, Wellness and Spiritual Growth): Components and Preliminary Findings

The GoodNEWS Project is a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project between UT Southwestern Medical Center and twenty – eight (28) African-American congregations in Dallas, Texas. Pilot studies were completed in 2005 with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a five-year National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) randomized clinical trial was initiated in September 2007, testing the effects of the collaboration on increasing physical activity, reducing saturated fat intake, and modifying other risk factors for heart disease – HDL, LDL, HgA1c, BMI and blood pressure. Baseline data from October 2008, indicate that most of the study participants (n=396) have desirable levels of total cholesterol (72.2%), optimal (40.1%) or near optimal (25%) LDL levels, and normal (74.2%) triglycerides, while one-half (48.7%) have low HDL levels. Additionally, most participants have prehypertension (42.9%) or hypertension (21.7%) and the vast majority are obese (67.1%). Participants reported substantially higher levels of disease than national averages for African-American adults: heart disease (9.3%), diabetes (15.3%), high cholesterol (36.3%), and high blood pressure (47.5%). Women were significantly more likely to be sedentary than men (p<.0001; 7-day physical activity recall [PAR]) but men were more likely to eat a diet high in saturated fats than women (p<.01; Diet History Questionnaire [DHQ]). Eating a high saturated fat diet was also related to younger age (p<.0001), being employed (p=.006), smoking (p=.005), and being obese (p<.0001). The study findings and implications will be discussed within the context of the faith-health disease prevention model being developed by the GoodNEWS collaborators.