Healthy Body/Healthy Spirit: a church-based nutrition and physical activity intervention

Abstract

African-Americans (AAs) are significantly less likely to be physically active than other Americans, and, like all Americans, they consume fewer than the recommended five fruit and vegetable (F & V) servings per day. This study, titled Healthy Body/Healthy Spirit, has two primary aims: (1) to test the effectiveness of a culturally tailored self-help dietary (focusing on F & V intake) and physical activity (PA) intervention compared to standard health education materials, and (2) to test the effectiveness of using Motivational Interviewing (MI), delivered by telephone, to modify PA and dietary habits. The study is a randomized effectiveness trial with three experimental conditions. Group 1 (comparison) will receive standard (existing commercial) nutrition and PA intervention materials, Group 2 (TX1) will receive a culturally tailored self-help nutrition and PA intervention of similar intensity as Group 1, and Group 3 (TX2) will receive the same intervention as Group 2, plus four telephone counseling calls based on MI. Participants will be AA adults recruited through local black churches. Despite the extensive use of MI to modify addictive behaviors, this represents one of the first controlled field trials to employ MI to address diet and PA. Secondly, this is one of the first studies to test the effectiveness of a self-help diet and PA intervention tailored for an African-American church population.