Faith-based Approaches to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk: Correlates of Behavior Change

African Americans (AA) continue to have higher age-adjusted rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related morbidity and mortality in comparison to their Caucasian counterparts. A growing body of literature has examined faith-based settings for health promotion with promising results in improving health behaviors. Yet less is known about how effective these programs are with older AAs, especially in determining factors that may influence behavior change. This research investigates factors associated with health behavior change in the first phase of an 18 month faith-based intervention in North Florida to reduce CVD risk in mid-life and older AAs (45+). Behavior change examined in three treatment churches (n=84) at baseline and after six months of intervention included daily fruit and vegetable servings, daily physical activity (PA), and clinical outcomes (BMI, diastolic and systolic blood pressure [BP], and cholesterol including LDL, HDL and total) in a sub-sample (n=26). Study examined 1) church factors (health program attendance, usefulness of materials, pastor/church leadership) and 2) individual factors (stress, perceived health, background characteristics of age, education, gender and marital status). The results using correlations and ANOVA show that health program attendance and usefulness of materials were significantly related to increasing fruit and vegetable intake. Health program attendance was also significantly related to increasing PA. Finally, significant associations were shown with gender (men) and decreasing BMI's, marital status (married) and increased daily fruit and vegetable intake and (non-married) decreased diastolic and systolic BP; and education (at least a bachelor's degree) and decreased systolic BP. Implications for practice will be discussed.