Tailored telephone education to promote awareness and adoption of fruit and vegetable recommendations among urban and mostly immigrant black men: a randomized controlled trial.
BACKGROUND
Fruit and vegetable (FV) intake in black men are far below national recommendations.


METHODS
Urban, primarily immigrant, black men (n=490) from the New York City metropolitan area participating in the Cancer Awareness and Prevention (CAP) Trial (2005-2007) were randomly assigned to one of two intervention groups: 1) FV Education (FVE) or 2) Prostate Education (PE). Both interventions entailed a mailed brochure plus two tailored telephone education (TTE) calls. Outcomes, measured at baseline and at eight months, included knowledge of FV recommendations, perceived benefits, stage of readiness to adopt recommendations and self-reported FV consumption.


RESULTS
At follow-up, the FVE group consumed an average of 1.2 more FV servings per day than the PE group (P<0.001; adjusted for baseline). The FVE group also demonstrated increases in knowledge about recommended FV amounts (P<0.01) and appropriate serving sizes (P<0.05), and in the percent of participants moving from a lower to a higher stage of readiness to adopt FV recommendations (P<0.05). The FVE group did not demonstrate increases in knowledge related to the importance of eating a colorful variety or in the ability to name potential health benefits.


CONCLUSIONS
TTE can be a practical and moderately effective intervention for raising awareness of FV recommendations and for promoting FV consumption in urban and primarily immigrant black men.
Wolf
Randi L
RL
Ella McCollum Vahlteich Endowment, Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. wolf@tc.columbia.edu
Lepore
Stephen J
SJ
Vandergrift
Jonathan L
JL
Basch
Charles E
CE
Yaroch
Amy L
AL
D000349:Africa / Q000208:ethnology; D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005638:Fruit; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control; D013663:Teaching; D013689:Telephone; D014505:Urban Population; D014675:Vegetables; D014900:West Indies / Q000208:ethnology