Body and soul. A dietary intervention conducted through African-American churches.
OBJECTIVE
Body and Soul was a collaborative effort among two research universities, a national voluntary agency (American Cancer Society), and the National Institutes of Health to disseminate and evaluate under real-world conditions the impact of previously developed dietary interventions for African Americans.


METHODS
Body and Soul was constructed from two successful research-based interventions conducted in African-American churches. Components deemed essential from the prior interventions were combined, and then tested in a cluster randomized-effectiveness trial. The primary outcome was fruit and vegetable intake measured with two types of food frequency questionnaires at baseline and 6-month follow-up.


RESULTS
At the 6-month follow-up, intervention participants showed significantly greater fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake relative to controls. Post-test differences were 0.7 and 1.4 servings for the 2-item and 17-item F&V frequency measures, respectively. Statistically significant positive changes in fat intake, motivation to eat F&V, social support, and efficacy to eat F&V were also observed.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that research-based interventions, delivered collaboratively by community volunteers and a health-related voluntary agency, can be effectively implemented under real-world conditions.
Resnicow
Ken
K
School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. kresnic@umich.edu
Campbell
Marci  Kramish
M
Carr
Carol
C
McCarty
Frances
F
Wang
Terry
T
Periasamy
Santhi
S
Rahotep
Simone
S
Doyle
Colleen
C
Williams
Alexis
A
Stables
Gloria
G
D001741:Black or African American; D004032:Diet; D004034:Diet Surveys; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005638:Fruit; D005845:Georgia; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009657:North Carolina; D033303:Protestantism; D012107:Research Design; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014675:Vegetables