Community Fitness Passport Program: A culturally-tailored model for health promotion programming in population health management

Background: Recent health policy reforms have incentivized healthcare organizations to collaborate with community organizations to improve population health. Such efforts are particularly relevant for minority populations, who have a higher burden of chronic disease and fewer community resources.

Methods: The Community Fitness Passport Program (CFPP), a collaborative effort between an academic medical center and several community organizations, is a culturally-tailored program that addresses known barriers to physical activity among low-income African-Americans in the South Side of Chicago. Medical center patients and community members were recruited for the 10-week program, in which participants used ‘passports’ to explore community resources (e.g. local churches, YMCAs, park districts) and participated in culturally-tailored physical activities (e.g. Zumba, gospel and soul-infused aerobics). Pre/post surveys measuring reported barriers, knowledge, attitudes and stages of change, clinical variables (BMI), and attendance rates were used to assess program effectiveness. McNemar's test and t-tests were used; statistical significance was defined as a p-value <0.05.

Results: Twenty-five participants were enrolled, 60% attended > 3 sessions (mean: 7.6). The majority (77%) rated the program as “excellent”. Post-program, participants reported decreased exercise barriers, greater knowledge of exercise benefits, improved quality of health, and advances in exercise stages of change (to action and maintenance) (p<0.05 for all measures). Participants experienced a mean decrease in BMI of 0.2.

Conclusion: The CFPP improved knowledge and physical activity among participants. Interventions such as this can inform planning for future healthcare-community programs and health policy initiatives targeting population health management and healthcare payment reform.