Improving Healthy Living Opportunities: Laurel HARVEST

The goal of this pre-post intervention study is to understand how community-engaged approaches to policy, systems, and environmental approaches can work to improve fruit and vegetable consumption and food security status among an Appalachian Kentucky community. The main approaches taken will be to employ a Community Advisory Board to define our target population of need, and appropriate intervention strategies. The investigators aim to understand if nutrition-based programming and food system approaches for lower-income, single-parent households, and multi-generational households can improve health. Participants will engage in annual data collection to assess dietary quality and food security status.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Obesity; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Special Services; Other: Services as Usual

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 281
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Kentucky
    • Lexington, Kentucky, United States, 40506
      • University of Kentucky

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Resident of Laurel of Pike County
• Over 18 years of age

Exclusion Criteria:

• Pregnancy
• Non-English speaking
• Plans to move out of the counties within the next three years

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Laurel County; Specialized services	Behavioral: Special Services; Community members will complete data collection at the extension office or community partner location. Extension cooking classes and helping to make raised bed gardens along with other area happenings will be offered to participants throughout the year with check-ins and reminders. Data will be collected from study participants (regardless of the intervention decided) , at two time points, to include survey, dietary recall, and carotenoid scanner.
Active Comparator: Pike County; Extension services as usual	Other: Services as Usual; Community members will receive extension services as usual with Data collection on participants at two time points to assess changes in rates of food insecurity, dietary quality, and overall health conditions.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
change in food security	Food Security Status will be measured at each time point by the 10-item United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Household Food Security Module. The questionnaire includes ten questions pertaining to food security that were designed to assess an individual's ability to obtain food directly to ensure having enough healthy food to eat. The questions include items such as not having enough money to purchase food, inability to afford nutritious food, and skipping meals due to lack of sufficient money. Answer choices include often, sometimes, never, and don't know. Items will be scored Food security status is assigned as follows: raw score zero-High food security among adults, raw score 1-2-Marginal food security, raw score 3-5-Low food security, raw score 6-10-Very low food security. For some reporting purposes, the food security status of the first two categories in combination will be described as food secure and the latter two as food insecure.	Baseline (year 1) and year 3
change in total Healthy Eating Index scores	The Healthy Eating Index is a measurement that can capture changes in the thirteen dietary components outlined in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. A maximum score-5 or 10 points- can be reached for each dietary component, depending on the component. Points are awarded when the amounts consumed meets the standard for a particular dietary component. Amounts that do not meet the standard get fewer points, with zero being the minimum score, and the maximum total Healthy Eating Index score is 100.	Baseline (year 1) and year 3
Change in Food and Physical Activity Questionnaire (FPAQ)	30 item questionnaire to collect self-reported behaviors pertaining to five domains: diet, physical activity, food safety, food security and food resource management. The response options for each question are based on a Likert scale. Each question is scored with higher scores indicating greater frequency of the behavior in question.	Baseline (year 1) and year 3
change in carotenoids	the VEGGIE METER™ will be used to measure dermal carotenoids using non-invasive RS Spectroscopy. Carotenoids are a biological marker of fruit and vegetable consumption. This non-invasive measurement of dermal carotenoids has been validated against the standard of serum carotenoids in adults. To obtain the measurement, a subject places their pointer finger into the machine for 20 seconds while their finger is squeezed. Three replicates will be taken per person at 20 seconds per replicate. The VEGGIE METER™ scores dermal carotenoids on a scale of 0-850 with higher scores indicating higher intake.	Baseline (year 1) and year 3

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Makenzie Barr-Porter
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Makenzie Barr-Porter, PhD, University of Kentucky

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 27, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 21, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): November 21, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 24, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 24, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): May 31, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 17, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 12, 2026
• Last Verified: February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Rural; Health Equity; Food Insecurity
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Nutrition Disorders; Overnutrition; Body Weight; Overweight; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Obesity; Behavior
• Other Study ID Numbers: 64602; 2022-68015-36497 (Other Grant/Funding Number: USDA NIFA)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No