New Prevention Research Center Targets Diet, Physical Activity And Smoki Ns For Study Through Community-based Interventions In A Rural Midwest Population

Changing eating, exercise and smoking habits in rural midwest communities is a principal goal of the newly established Prevention Research Center. The Center, a partnership between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Saint Louis University School of Public Health and the Missouri Department of Health, is funded from 1994 through 1998.The Center pursues its mission - to prevent disease and disability in the rural midwest - through applied research to reduce cardiovascular disease in a high-risk population. This population consists of persons of lower socioeconomic status in a 12-county area of southeast Missouri, total population 217,000.In the major research study, Community-Based Intervention for Healthy Lifestyles, staff train local coalitions to implement interventions targeting fruit and vegetable intake, physical activity and cigarette smoking. Coalitions also mobilize communities to accept policy change related to these interventions.Diet-, exercise- and smoking-related outcome objectives are to increase fruit and vegetable intake to five or more servings per day by 6% (baseline: 20%), to increase physical activity by 8% (baseline: 39%), and to decrease cigarette smoking by 6% (baseline: 29%). Environmental and policy objectives include implementing school lunch policies to decrease fat to less than or equal to 30% total calories, increasing referrals for dietary change, enhancing media coverage of cardiovascular risk issues, building walking trails, and establishing local ordinances prohibiting tobacco sales to minors.The quasi-experimental study design allows us to match at the group level (intervention and comparison county pairings) and analyze at the individual level (personal interviews). Appropriate statistical techniques will be employed. Evaluation methods include phone surveys based on a Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System questionnaire, focus groups, a network analysis, level-of-effort analyses, and the FORECAST technique. Preliminary study results are expected in late 1995.