142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

302126
Do Right!® Block-by-Block pilot study: A community-driven lifestyle modification invention to help improve physical activity, healthy eating behaviors, and built environments among African Americans in Cincinnati, Ohio

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Wednesday, November 19, 2014 : 10:50 AM - 11:10 AM

Renee Mahaffey Harris , The Center for Closing the Health Gap in Greater Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
Hana Shaaban , The Center for Closing the Health Gap in Greater Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
Rhonda Lindsey , The Center for Closing the Health Gap in Greater Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
Community organizations serving underserved populations must implement innovative lifestyle modification efforts to address persistent health disparities.  Do Right! Block-by-Block Pilot follows the Community-based participatory research approach and was created in response to Healthy People 2020 objectives and community inputs to address physical activity and obesity in its subscribers’ community.  Do Right’s! focus included: Live-Right!, Eat-Right!, Move-Right!  This session will describe key elements of the project, report significant outcomes including results from photovoice, and offer lessons learned for other community-based lifestyle modification efforts.  Outreach coordinators canvassed the neighborhood, discussed the purpose of the health-focused community-run program, and identified residents to serve as health captains.  Health captains completed an 8-week training-course and were responsible for implementing 12-weekly sessions with fellow community members.  Pre, post, and follow-up biometrics and survey data were collected from all participants.  Participants identified barriers to healthy living within their community using photovoice as a way to communicate needs to local policymakers.  Do Right! covered one 2010 Census tract yielding 15 households (21 participants), predominantly female and African-American.  Biometric and photovoice data, results from nutrition and physical activity logs, and overall experience scores will be reported.  Findings suggest a community-driven lifestyle modification initiative was readily accepted by community members and has potential to elicit significant improvements in healthy lifestyles.  Furthermore these efforts empowered community members to advocate for policy changes that will help create social and physical environments that promote good health within their neighborhood.  Efforts are currently underway to recruit a larger pool of participants for full implementation.

Learning Areas:

Advocacy for health and health education
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Program planning
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Identify strategies to engage and empower community advocates in community-based interventions that promote and encourage health lifestyle changes. Evaluate the significance of measurable outcomes resulting from a multidisciplinary physical activity, nutrition, and wellness intervention tailored by community members in a predominantly African-American community. Describe critical components of developing a community-based program in underserved and disadvantaged communities. Describe challenges and opportunities for engaging community members in policy work. Identify health disparities among the African American population.

Keyword(s): Community-Based Research (CBPR), Health Disparities/Inequities

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the executive director at The Center for Closing the Health Gap and have overseen all stages of work at The Center.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.