Tu Salud Si Cuenta Worksite: Pilot Intervention Study (TSSC Worksite)

Building on existing intervention strategies of the Tu Salud Si Cuenta media campaign, this proposed worksite pilot study will be testing a new feature by designing worksite promotion intervention strategies. The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of a worksite-based physical activity and healthful food choice. The intervention will be among two worksites in the Lower Rio Grande Valley who employ primarily Mexican-American personnel.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

Obesity has not only been increasing over the past three decades (Wang & Beydoun, 2007; Wang & Zhang, 2002), it is predicted to increase in the future until by 2048 all American adults would be overweight (Wang, Beydoun, Liang, Caballero, Kumanyika, 2008). Moreover, the majority of Mexican American men and women are predicted to be overweight and obese by 2030 (91.1% and 86.7% respectively).

The proposed intervention research study is building from existing intervention strategies designed for the Mexican American population entitled Tu Salud Si Cuenta. This intervention highlights in the media successful role models who have changed their food choices and physical activity levels. In addition the intervention designs environmental changes to help community members carry out recommended behavior change strategies. Outcomes of interest for this study include increased physical activity so as to achieve the CDC/ACSM recommendations of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each week (Haskell et al., 2007), eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day, reducing food portion sizes, and subsequent changes in biomarkers of health.

This proposed worksite pilot study will be testing a new feature to the TSSC intervention by designing worksite promotion intervention strategies to promote physical activity and healthful food choices through environmental change strategies at the worksite. The same full scope of behavioral and clinical outcomes of interest will be examined in this pilot.

The participants in this study will be male and female employees of two worksites, aged 18-65 years. A convenience sample will be used for this study. Employees from State Department of Public Health Region 11 Harlingen Office or City of Brownsville will be recruited. Supervisors from both sites have provided letters of support for this project and have agreed to allow recruitment. Employees will be contacted with informational flyers and e-mails sent by the supervisors providing the letters of support. Interested adults will be sent an interest letter and informed consent. Data collection will proceed after the participant completes the informed consent form and provides documentation of physician's clearance to participate in physical activity.

The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of a worksite-based physical activity and healthful food choice, intervention among two worksites in the Lower Rio Grande Valley who employ primarily Mexican American personnel.

Persons will complete consent forms during an enrollment/pretest period of 4 weeks. This period will include an electronic pre-test survey using Survey Monkey online software (Finley, 2008) completed by each participant. Additionally, clinical measures such as blood pressure, anthropometrics, fasting total cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose will be collected for each participant. These exams will be conducted by the trained staff from the clinical research unit and follow the identical procedures used for members of the Hispanic Health Research Cohort. Finally, in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each participant will be encouraged to visit their personal physician and discuss participation in the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity per week.

All individuals are given an exit interview with a registered phlebotomist or registered nurse to review immediate findings. All samples for laboratory testing and storage will be coded and identifiers removed. Participants will also provided with a written summary including their height, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides. Values out of their expected range are flagged and referrals made as necessary. This interview is also used to address any questions or concerns that may be raised.

Descriptive analyses will be used to compare the characteristics of the participants in the intervention and control groups that we intend to compare with respect to any outcome of interests, (e.g., blood pressure). Specifically, we will compare the groups with respect to demographic and socio-economic factors such as age, sex, ethnicity, and education level. Since the outcome measurements at baseline and the follow up quarterly visit (at 3 months, 6 months, etc) are expected to be correlated, we will use Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) models. GEE takes into account the correlation of an outcome measured repeatedly over time by treating it as a nuisance parameter (Zeger & Liang, 1986). As a result, the within-subjects correlation is not modeled explicitly. GEE uses a "working correlation" to treat the within-subjects correlation, and produces standard error estimates that take into account the correlation of responses with subjects. In addition, we will use Random effects models (Wolfinger & O'Connell, 1993) to adjust for the heterogeneity of subjects, which can be due to unmeasured predispositions, such as genetic factors, that account for the correlation within subjects across time. Estimated effects of a covariate of interest (e.g., males vs. females) are adjusted for these individual differences and model estimates should be interpreted in terms of the change due to the covariate in an individual at a given level of random subject effect. The random effects model is most useful when inferences about individual differences are the primary interest. Random effects models have been developed for both continuous and binary outcome variables (Wolfinger et al., 1993).

The study will take place over a 1 year time frame. Participants will have data collected prior to the intervention and four posttests at 3-month intervals. The immediate intervention group will receive the pilot worksite intervention for the initial 12 week period. The delayed intervention group will receive the pilot worksite intervention beginning in month 3 of the study.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

150

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Texas
      • Brownsville, Texas, United States, 78520
        • City of Brownsville
      • Harlingen, Texas, United States, 78550
        • State Department of Public Health Region 11 Harlingen Office

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Men and women who are full- or part-time employees of either State Department of Public health Region 11 Harlingen Office or City of Brownsville.
  • Persons of any racial/ethnic group aged between 18-65 years.
  • Persons who are comfortable communicating in English (speaking, reading, and writing).
  • Persons who are cleared by a physician for participation in the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Persons older than 65 years or younger than 18 years.
  • Persons not currently employed with either of the two worksite partners.
  • Persons who are not medically cleared by personal physician.
  • Persons who are not comfortable communicating in English (speaking, reading, and writing).

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Immediate Intervention Group
The immediate intervention group will receive the TSSC pilot worksite intervention in the initial 12 week period from the pre-test/enrollment visit.
The intervention will consist of providing TSSC newsletters to employees of the worksite. Additionally, informational sessions about physical activity and healthful food choice (consistent with the TSSC messages) during work hours will be implemented. Social support groups for the behavior changes will be established thru colleague networks. Individualized behavior change plans will be designed for enrolled participants. Additionally, environmental changes including a well equipped exercise facility on site and access to healthful foods in vending machines and work groups providing fruit and vegetable access in kitchen area will be implemented.
Other: Delayed Intervention Group
The delayed intervention group will receive the TSSC pilot worksite intervention beginning in month 6 of the study (6 months from the enrollment/pre-test visit).
The intervention will consist of providing TSSC newsletters to employees of the worksite. Additionally, informational sessions about physical activity and healthful food choice (consistent with the TSSC messages) during work hours will be implemented. Social support groups for the behavior changes will be established thru colleague networks. Individualized behavior change plans will be designed for enrolled participants. Additionally, environmental changes including a well equipped exercise facility on site and access to healthful foods in vending machines and work groups providing fruit and vegetable access in kitchen area will be implemented.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
The primary purpose of this pilot study is to test the feasibility of implementing Tu Salud Si Cuenta in a worksite environment.
Time Frame: One year
One year

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Belinda Reininger, DrPH, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health - Brownsville Regional Campus

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

November 1, 2010

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2011

Study Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 26, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 26, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

March 27, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

May 3, 2011

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 29, 2011

Last Verified

April 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HSC-SPH-09-0023

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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